Ursula von der Leyen’s drone wall proposal to help protect Europe from Russia now faces skepticism from both France and Germany.
“I’m wary of [those kinds of] terms. Things are a little more sophisticated and complex,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters Wednesday before a meeting with EU leaders in Copenhagen, pointing to his more pressing defense priorities.
“In reality, we need to have advanced warning systems to better anticipate threats, we need to deter with European long-range fire capabilities, and we need to have more surface-to-air defense and counter-drone systems,” he said.
In recent weeks, drones have violated Polish, Romanian, Danish and Norwegian airspace, with Europe casting blame on Russia in many of the cases. Those incidents gave new momentum to a so-called drone wall — an initiative first pitched by frontline countries last year and backed by von der Leyen in her State of the Union address last month.
Earlier this week, however, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said there were more urgent priorities to tackle. “Drone defense, of course, but not by a drone wall,” he told an audience at the Warsaw Security Forum.
The drone wall debate also underscores how geography often leads to disagreements among European leaders regarding how best to protect the continent from external threats, including Russia — and those divisions were on show in Copenhagen as leaders entered the summit.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned about not forgetting Europe’s southern flank, a message echoed by her Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“Any common European defense project concerning Europe cannot be limited to the continent’s eastern borders,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda praised the project ahead of the Copenhagen meeting, highlighting a clear divide between frontline nations and countries further from the Russian and Ukrainian borders.
According to Macron, Europeans should focus instead on jointly developing early warning systems (France and Germany are currently cooperating on the matter); procure local “deterrent” deep-strike capabilities, including ballistic missiles; and buy more air defense systems.
The French president also mentioned nuclear deterrence as playing a part.
That doesn’t mean drones are not important, Macron added. “We are moving forward at a forced march pace to have drone and counter-drone capabilities,” he said.
The drone wall is one of four EU defense projects pitched by Brussels ahead of Wednesday’s European Council meeting.
Elena Giordano and Nektaria Stamouli contributed to this report.
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