Germany’s Baerbock: European defense union no longer a question of if but how fast

A European defense union is no longer a question of if, but of how fast, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.

“The European defense industry is still national in character and therefore highly inefficient,” Baerbock said at the Europe 2025 conference on European sovereignty.

“If we continue to use 150 different weapon systems in Europe and they are not compatible with each other, then we can spend all of the world’s money on them – we will not be able to be effective enough, which is why I believe that the European defense union is no longer a question of whether, but how quickly we get it off the ground,” she said.