EU leaders plan to rearm in face of Putin threat

Reuters :
During a summit in the former royal palace of Versailles, the 27 heads of state and government announced on Friday that the invasion of Ukraine has made it evident that the EU needs to urgently take responsibility for its own security and remove all of its dependencies on others.
EU leaders have announced their intention to collectively rearm and become autonomous in food, energy and military hardware in a Versailles declaration that described Russia’s war as “a tectonic shift in European history”, reports The Guardian.
France’s Emmanuel Macron stated that the Versailles treaty of 1919 had divided Europe, however, today leaders were uniting. He described Russia’s aggression as a “tragic turning point”.
“We can see how our food, our energy, our defence are all issues of sovereignty,” he said. “We want to be open to the world but we want to choose our partners and not depend on anybody.”
“The Versailles declaration is linked to the fact that sovereignty in Europe, which might have been thought of by some as a slogan or a French fantasy, is seen by all today as crucial,” he added.
Macron defended the decision not to offer fast-track EU membership for Ukraine, which was criticised by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“The answer is no,” Macron said of the request from the war-stricken country, but he stated
that the EU was using all its economic power to help the Ukrainian government.
The Versailles declaration is said to be the “initiation” of European defence by the European Council president, Charles Michel.
The European Commission has been given a new role to find weaknesses in Europe’s defences and to advise on investment.
The leaders agreed to “invest more and better in defence capabilities and innovative technologies” by substantially increasing defence expenditures and with the help of tighter cooperation and coordination of their armed forces and procurement.
“About 10 days ago, Germany decided to make historical investments and Denmark made a historic choice deciding to ask the people if they want to come back to the European defence and security project,” Macron stated. “Everywhere you look historic choices are being made.”
Macron said Olaf Scholz’s decision to set aside €100bn (£84bn) for defence and Denmark’s decision to put its opt-out on EU security mechanisms to a referendum showed the seriousness of the moment, says The Guardian.
The EU is also planning to double its funding of military equipment destined for Ukraine to €1bn.
The deadline for freeing the EU from dependency on Russian gas, oil, and coal has been set to 2027.
In 2021, the EU imported 155bn cubic metres of natural gas from Russia, which is approximately 45% of its gas imports and close to 40% of the bloc’s total gas consumption.