Warns of fragmentation in speech at Military Academy in Amadora
Former Portuguese political heavyweight, Durão Barroso, has weighed into the defence spending debate today, saying the fundamental problem in Europe is not a lack of investment, but a lack of coordination, and the risk of fragmentation.
Now, for some years employed within the private sector, the former PSD prime minister and former European Commission president suggested that moving from the (current) target of investing 2% of GDP in defence ‘as soon as possible’ to “3% or 3.5%” will not solve the problems of European defence, or those of Portugal.
“It could even worsen the problems (…) because it would increase the dysfunctions and incompatibilities that exist between different systems,” he posed at a conference on defence at the Military Academy in Amadora.
The “important” thing, in Barroso’s mindset, is “to ensure that this increase in expenditure and investment is carried out from a Community perspective”.
In other words, focus should not only be on a military level, but also on an industrial and research level.
Durão Barroso also stressed the importance of transmitting to people the reasons for increased defence spending. “There is a very strong awareness of the danger that Europe faces and the need to invest in defence, but this must also be felt by the population,” he said.
Essentially, “Europe must stop being the geopolitical adolescent that it is (…) if we want peace, we need to prepare for war and, therefore, we need a European dimension of defence”, he said.
Sadly, the former political leader said he sees no signs of “a peaceful solution for Ukraine” in the “foreseeable” future – stressing that Russian president Vladimir Putin is “interested in maintaining, at least, a situation of latent conflict”.
Source material: LUSA
