“Europe needs to have its own defense industry. Not for the sake of competition, but to be able to defend ourselves. And at bottom, we need to realize the true purpose of the Union, which is to create a common ground with human rights, democracy and freedom of speech. We must be able to defend them. Yes, we have it NATO for this reason. After all, we have NATO and it’s good that we have NATO. But we have to do this work ourselves and this work is complementary to the work that NATO is doing.”

This was pointed out by the Minister of National Defense, among others Nikos Dendiasparticipating today in the discussion on “Today’s Threats, Tomorrow’s Priorities”, in the framework of the GLOBSEC Forum 2024, which was held in Prague.

The discussion, which was moderated by Le Monde editorial director Sylvie Kauffmann, also included Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, the former Slovak Defense Minister Martin SklenárHelsing co-founder and co-CEO Gundbert Scherf and director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council, Anna Wieslander.

At the same time, he commented that on the question of trying to coordinate the defense industries and expand the European Union’s defense capabilities, “the European Union is confused and contradicting itself in this regard” as it “calculates the defense capability based on debt and deficit. After saying that we have to make a huge effort to cover the distance and that we have no time, this cannot be true.

I struggle daily with the fiscal necessities of my ministry, trying to transform them Greek Armed Forces in what we call Agenda 2030, at the level of the 21st century. Precisely because I have to face these difficulties. And I also have the European Union on my back – because of the deficits and the debt – and I can’t do one, I can’t do the other, I have to reprogram for 10-15 years from now.”

“So, I mean, we’re going to get a Defense Commissioner, great, great. What will the Defense Commissioner do if I can’t sign a check? So let’s change the fiscal rules regarding Defense. This would be the main thing that the European Union should do in the future,” he urged.

On whether there is political will for such a thing, he remarked: “I see the absolute rule, the rule of necessity for survival, behind all of this. Now, if the fiscal rules in the European Union are fine, but the European Union doesn’t survive, great! We would have the rules on an altar, like the tablets of the Ten Commandments of Moses, but we would have been destroyed by totalitarian forces of the planet.

Obviously this is going too far. I fully, but fully, understand the need for fiscal responsibility, but these times call for additional measures to be taken.”

Regarding the new Defense Commissioner, he estimated that “and of course, like everything new, the new Defense Commissioner would have a problem in consolidating his role, in creating understanding about his role, primarily within the European Union, but and in the capitals. Because until now, this has been a national decision. But I prefer to keep the optimistic view. And as always, big things start with small steps. So let’s encourage this effort and see how we go from there.”