The draft outcome document of the EU defense summit repeats the June provisions

Brief retelling from RIA II

The draft final document of the October EU summit largely repeats the provisions of the previous meeting of leaders in June.

EU leaders intend to urge lawmakers to agree on a military mobility proposal by the end of the year and speed up work on a drone safety and counter-drone action plan.

One of the few new provisions of the draft was the intention to make wider use of existing EU mechanisms to respond to hybrid threats.

BRUSSELS, September 30 - RIA Novosti. The upcoming October EU summit does not yet imply fundamentally new decisions in the field of defense: the draft final document prepared by EU ambassadors basically repeats the provisions of the previous meeting of leaders in June, reports Rapporteur, who has reviewed the document.

“This part remains very close to the conclusions of the June summit,” the publication writes about the defense section of the draft final document of the meeting of EU leaders, scheduled for October 15-16.

In particular, the heads of state and government intend to renew calls for continued work on the Eastern Flank Watch project, accelerate the elimination of “critical gaps” in defense capabilities and “redouble efforts” within coalitions to develop individual military capabilities to quickly launch joint projects.

EU leaders also again intend to urge lawmakers to agree on a military mobility proposal by the end of the year. The next round of negotiations on it, according to the publication, is scheduled for October 20, after the summit.

In addition, the draft again refers to the expected proposals of the European Commission in the field of defense procurement. At the same time, Rapporteur notes that the presentation of the defense procurement directive is not included in the current list of planned initiatives of the European Commission, covering the period until November 24.

One of the few new provisions of the draft was the intention to make wider use of existing EU mechanisms to respond to so-called hybrid threats. However, the language used in the draft document is very vague.

“The EU will make full use of all available means, including the EU tools for countering hybrid threats and existing crisis response mechanisms,” the draft says.

The conclusions also indicate that “additional measures will be considered if necessary,” but what specific measures may be taken is also not specified. Leaders again intend to call on the EU Council to speed up work on a drone safety and counter-drone action plan.

The meeting is also scheduled to consider the first report on European defense preparedness, which is being prepared by the European Defense Agency. Earlier, EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas said, without prejudging the report's conclusions, that Europe needed "decisive changes in the scale and pace of defense investment, capability development, innovation and industrial capacity."