EU foreign policy chief Kallas postpones establishment of expert group on defense policy

Brussels. Due to resistance from government representatives, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas canceled at short notice the establishment of a group of experts to strengthen European defense policy, which was actually planned for today. “Some member states felt that this was not the right approach at this point in time,” an EU official in Brussels said. After discussions with ministers, it was decided not to pursue the initiative any further.

According to information from the German Press Agency, the German and Italian governments, among others, had previously positioned themselves against the expert group. Under the auspices of Kallas, this should actually develop proposals on how gaps in Europe's conventional military capabilities can be closed more quickly and effectively, and submit a report with concrete recommendations. Leading political and military representatives from several EU states as well as Great Britain and Ukraine were planned to be members. They were actually supposed to be presented this Monday morning.

There was initially no official information on the exact reasons for Germany's rejection of the expert group. One possible reason is that the federal government has recently been rather critical of Kallas and wants to rely on the planning processes in NATO when it comes to defense policy issues. Berlin is currently advocating for large parts of the foreign service led by Kallas to be merged with the EU Commission.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Service said that it did not want to let up on the issue of defense and that new possibilities for cooperation with EU states should now be examined. “The diagnosis has not changed: Europe needs to move faster on defense,” the official said. "We don't want to look back in a few years and realize that Europe was so focused on where it needed to be in 2035 that it failed to do what was necessary in 2027."