Europe must abandon pointless restrictions to boost its defense capabilities

TALLINN - Urmas Paet, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, said during a European Parliament debate on EU defense readiness that Europe must get rid of outdated and pointless restrictions that weaken its defense capabilities.

He cited a recent situation where Russian fighter jets were in Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, but Finnish fighter jets, for example, could not enter Estonian airspace due to their own internal restrictions. "Such historically outdated restrictions should be reviewed in all European countries, NATO and EU countries, and removed," said Paet.

Speaking of a "Military Schengen," Paet said that in relation to the budget, concrete steps must be taken to ensure that future large investments in Europe are also considered from a security and defense perspective. "And of course, here too, all possible restrictions that hinder the movement of military equipment within the EU and NATO space to help each other must be removed," he added.

The report "On EU defence readiness by 2030: an assessment of needs" states, among other things, that given the growth of geopolitical threats, Europe must make major investments in modernizing its defense system. The European Union has underinvested in defense for 30 years, which has had serious consequences for its military capabilities and industrial base.

Taking into account the accumulated backlog, the European Commission estimates that additional investments of 800 billion euros are needed to renew and modernize Europe's arsenal. Despite increased financial efforts since 2022, the real growth of European armed forces continues to be hampered by differences in national budget planning, administrative inertia, market fragmentation, and difficulties in consolidating industrial efforts.