The leader of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, has called on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to make a strong commitment to joint European defence efforts within the EU.
The EPP is a grouping of centre-right parties in the European Parliament, including Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany.
Speaking at the CDU’s national party conference in Stuttgart on Saturday, Weber said that “we have always been strong when it comes to historical leadership. Now this historical leadership is also necessary when it comes to defence.”
In light of US President Donald Trump’s unclear policy towards the NATO defence alliance, Merz had declared at the Munich Security Conference last week that Europe must establish “a strong, self-supporting European pillar” within NATO in its own interests.
Weber now said that if the European Union actually achieves the goal of spending 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, “we Europeans will spend €6.4 trillion on defence in 10 years,” bringing the EU up to US levels of defence spending on the continent.
Instead of the current national military planning, European military planning must now be tackled via joint capabilities, Weber said.
He was critical of the level of cooperation among European defence companies and criticized national solo efforts in procurement, and the lack of common arms export regulations.
“The fact that every country is doing this for itself is preventing the creation of a single European defence market, which is so urgently needed,” Weber warned.