PARIS — France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom want to cut regulations on weapon-makers to help them boost production.
“We are calling for the defense industry to no longer be treated as just another industry,” France’s Sébastien Lecornu told reporters Wednesday, speaking after a meeting with defense ministers of the so-called E5 format in Paris.
“The European Commission has a role to play here,” he added, addressing Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, who was also present at the gathering.
It’s the third time that the E5 has met since the format was first created after U.S. President Donald Trump was reelected in November.
The call from Europe’s largest military powers comes as the continent attempts to rapidly rearm in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionism and concerns the United States may lessen its military presence in Europe.
Wednesday’s gathering — at which ministers discussed Ukraine as well as European defense — comes on the heels of a Tuesday meeting of 37 chiefs of the defense staff from the EU, NATO and beyond (minus the U.S.) to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine. It also follows an American proposal, accepted by Kyiv, for a 30-day truce in the war-torn country if Russia agrees.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the five ministers called for an assessment of EU regulations and national laws that could “hinder or slow down” weapons production and procurement.
“We need to reduce red tape within the EU to come up with practical headways for European defense,” Italy’s Guido Crosetto told reporters. Germany’s Boris Pistorius doubled down: “We want to deregulate, at a European level, but also in our nation states,” he said.
The push will resonate at EU level. Last month, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a proposal exempting most companies from EU corporate sustainability reporting — an effort also designed to benefit arms-makers. EU leaders also want the Commission to present a simplification package dedicated to the defense industry.
Trump’s shadow
While Tuesday’s military chiefs gathering looked like an effort to build a new security architecture without the Americans, on Wednesday, defense ministers from Italy, the U.K. and Poland were all keen to stress the importance of the transatlantic bond.
“We don’t want to stop our commercial relationship with the U.S., no one in Europe wants to be antagonistic with the U.S.,” Crosetto said, when asked about his country’s reliance on the American-made F-35 fighter jet. “We cannot break the Western alliance on the altar of industrial autonomy,” he added.
Poland’s Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz agreed, saying he wants to “reinforce the transatlantic relationship” and adding that, for now, Europe’s weapons industry doesn’t have the same production capabilities as the U.S.
Germany, however, seemed more ready to start contemplating a future with less U.S. involvement.
Pistorius revealed that he asked his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth last month to “develop a roadmap to avoid gaps in capabilities, organize burden sharing progressively, to know who does what” in case the U.S shifts some forces to the Indo-Pacific region.
He got no answer from either the White House or the Pentagon, he said.
Regardless of the transatlantic alliance, all countries pledged to deepen European industrial cooperation on areas including munitions, air defense and early warning systems.
Waiting for a ceasefire
All defense ministers stressed that, when it comes to the Ukraine war, the ball is in Putin’s court and that he should accept the truce on the table. In the meantime, a ‘coalition of the willing’ of 15 countries will start preparing for different scenarios, they said.
According to Lecornu, the 15 countries will start planning next week, under the leadership of France and the U.K. He did not, however, elaborate on security guarantees, or list the 15 countries.
“There is a very broad consensus emerging: The first security guarantee for Ukraine is the Ukrainian army, its training, format, capacity and equipment,” he told reporters, pushing back against Russia’s demand for a demilitarization of Ukraine.
Topics to tackle “urgently” include the security in the Black Sea and the safety of nuclear plants, he explained.
A lot more meetings are expected. On Saturday, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host a leader’s summit. Pistorius and the U.K.’s John Healy will co-chair a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels in the next weeks.
E5 ministers will meet again in Italy and the U.K. in the coming months.
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