Rethinking European Defence: The European Defence Mechanism Proposal

On 12 April 2025, the European Union (EU) finance ministers, joined by their counterparts from the UK, Norway, and Switzerland, expressed their support for a joint defence fund aimed at collectively purchasing and owning military equipment. The initiative would bring together EU and selected non-EU countries to streamline defence spending and enhance coordination (Strupczewski & Badohal, 2025). This proposal originates from a report by the Bruegel think tank, commissioned by the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. Its premise is the urgent need for the EU to achieve strategic autonomy, reversing decades of economic dependencies and fragmented strategic planning. This is deemed essential to effectively respond to contemporary threats, chief among them, a potential attack from Russia (Bortoletto, 2025; Wolff et al., 2025), following the diminishing reliability of the United States as Europe's primary security guarantor.

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Strategic Autonomy in Action: Europe’s Reassurance Force

On 10 April 2025, NATO hosted the last of a series of meetings of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ (Gray & Van Overstraeten, 2025). The initiative, spearheaded by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and supported by French President Emmanuel Macron, was first introduced at the London Summit on Ukraine in March (Davies, 2025). Bringing together defence ministers from 30 nations, including Canada and Australia but excluding the United States (US), the coalition aims to establish a ‘reassurance force’ for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia (Melkozerova, 2025). The group seeks a credible and lasting European-made peace, reducing the chances of a future invasion from Russia even without US security guarantees promised to the war-torn country. In the words of the British Defence Secretary, the aim is to “put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, to protect its sovereignty and deter further Russian aggression” (Gray & Van Overstraeten, 2025). The urgency of the project has grown amid declining U.S. support under the Trump administration, which has pushed Europe to assume greater responsibility for its own security as Washington pivots its strategic focus toward the Pacific.

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Greece’s Military Modernisation Process: Is the EU Ready to Follow?

On 2 April 2025, during a session in Parliament, the Greek government announced the largest military spending plan in its history: €25 billion over the next twelve years (Stamouli, 2025). This decision comes after years of budget cuts following the 2009-2018 financial crisis. The investment, which amounts to around three-and-a-half percent of Greece’s GDP, largely exceeds NATO’s two percent defence spending requirement and reflects the broader European shift in increased spending. Following Donald Trump’s re-election, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has repeatedly stressed the importance of meeting the two percent spending threshold to maintain effective deterrence (Cook, 2024).

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ReArm Europe: European Response to European Problems

Following Trump’s re-election and his statement on NATO – “if you are not going to pay your bills, we are not going to defend you” (NBC News, 2023) – along with JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference and their tense Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, a strong response from EU countries became inevitable. The US has made it clear that NATO allies failing to meet the 2% defence spending threshold cannot expect American protection, casting doubt on the applicability of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty to certain members. This policy shift not only shakes NATO and the EU but also signals a shift in US military engagement in Europe. Washington will now decide where to plan and exercise based on defence budgets, potentially reducing or repositioning its presence on the continent (Kube, Lee, & Tskirkin, 2025).

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Ceasefire in Gaza: The Fragile Agreement Between Israel and Hamas

On December 19th, 2024, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas entered into force in Gaza, halting the onslaught that has razed most of the Strip to the ground in the past fifteen months (Ewing, 2025; Shotter et al., 2025). The agreement followed months of draining negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States (Mills & Mackenzie, 2025). It involves three stages, the first of which started with a few hours delay, displaying the truce’s fragility (Boxerman, 2025). The deal should last 42 days and provide for the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons (Livni & Boxerman, 2025). Moreover, Israel will have to withdraw its forces from Gaza’s population centres to areas no more than 700 metres inside Gaza’s border with Israel, allowing civilians to return to what remains of their homes and a surge of aid into the enclave (Al Jazeera Staff, 2025).

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