PRAGUE -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on August 30 for a greater European commitment to security and overcoming past unwillingness to provide for its own defense, repeatedly citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as evidence the bloc must shed “illusions” and “think about our union as intrinsically a security project.”
Speaking in the Czech capital to attendees of the annual Globsec security conference, the returning head of the European Union’s executive arm laid out a staunch case for European solidarity against Russian and other threats and a “systemic overhaul of European defense,” warning that the next half of the decade would be “high risk.”
“If we want true peace, we must fundamentally rethink the foundations of Europe’s security architecture,” von der Leyen said. “Russia’s invasion has been an eye-opener for Europe.”
The 65-year-old German von der Leyen, who was endorsed for a fresh five-year term in July, vowed to appoint the bloc’s first “full-fledged defense commissioner” to the incoming European Commission, whose respective nominations from each of the 27 member states are ongoing.
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Von der Leyen criticized outsiders arguing against arming Ukraine and warned against premature talks that neither Moscow nor Kyiv seem prepared to conduct two and a half years into the full-scale Russian invasion. The answer to when it’s time for talks, she said, is “first and foremost up to our Ukrainian friends.”
Russian forces currently control about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, but Ukrainian troops now claim to control more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since a surprise Ukrainian incursion in Kursk began last month.
While she specifically cited “many outside Europe” for urging immediate talks, it also appeared to be a swipe at EU member Hungary, whose President Viktor Orban’s self-styled and uncoordinated “peace mission” to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing immediately after Budapest took up the rotating European Council Presidency in July infuriated Brussels.
“We want the war to stop as soon as possible,” von der Leyen said. But, she added, “My position is that peace is not simply the absence of war. Peace is a settlement that makes war impossible and unnecessary. Therefore, we must put Ukraine in the condition of negotiating such peace.”
Invoking bitter Cold War memories, von der Leyen warned against blaming Kyiv for Russia’s unprovoked invasion. She asked whether Hungary or then-Czechoslovakia could be blamed for invasions of those countries by Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops in 1956 and 1968.
“And the answer to this question is very clear,” she said. “The Kremlin’s behavior was illegal and atrocious back then, and the Kremlin’s behavior is illegal and atrocious today.”
Von der Leyen said that Europeans have many different histories and speak in many languages, “But in no language is peace synonymous with surrender; in no language is sovereignty synonymous with occupation.”
“So those who argue to stop support for Ukraine do not argue for peace,” she said, “they argue for appeasement and subjugation of Ukraine.”
SEE ALSO: Interview: Ukraine's Bold Strike Into Russia Is A Tactical Win With Unclear Strategic BenefitsVon der Leyen said one of the lessons of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and its international response was that “Europe has overcome its long-standing unwillingness to spend enough on its own defense.”
She emphasized the strength and importance of U.S. support and transatlantic cooperation but said “protecting Europe is first and foremost Europe’s duty.”
Von der Leyen said EU member states’ collective defense spending had shot up “from just over 200 billion euros before the war to almost 300 billion [euros] this year.”
She said aim must be “to build a continent-sized defense output” and “a systemic overhaul of Europe’s defense.”
“We Europeans must be on guard,” von der Leyen said. “We must refocus our attention on the security dimension of everything we do. We must think about our union as intrinsically a security project."
At the same conference, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that “we have a duty to remind people what is at stake…[and] what can happen if a just peace is not achieved, if the war ends with Russia’s victory not Ukraine’s.”
He noted Russia’s actions in its lightning war in Georgia in 2008, leaving it effectively occupying about one-fifth of Georgian territory, and the invasion of Crimea in 2014 that ushered in a slow-boiling war that exploded into full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Asked whether the European Union has learned from such past mistakes, Landsbergis said: “It can happen, yes. That chapter is not yet written.”
Von der Leyen welcomed the chance to speak in the Czech capital, praising Central Europe’s competitiveness and “impressive strength” and noting the region’s past concerns about Russian actions.
“Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, you have become the beating heart of solidarity,” von der Leyen said of the region.
The three-day Globsec security conference, which has been held in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, for the past 18 years, brings together European and global leaders and other senior officials and continues in Prague through September 1.