Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met today with the European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius at the Mansion House.

During the meeting, issues within Mr Kubilius’ portfolio were discussed, in particular the roadmap for strengthening EU defence preparedness for 2030 and the need to strengthen and accelerate European defence industry and production.

The Prime Minister informed Kubilios about the Greek programme for strengthening and armouring the armed forces and the emphasis on innovation.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated the need to give an operational dimension to Article 42, para. 7 (TEU), noting that European countries that have recently provided defence support to Cyprus have moved in this direction in practice, on an ad hoc basis and without the article having been activated.

The prime minister also stressed the need for joint European funding for projects of common European interest, such as a European air defence shield, a proposal he tabled in 2024 with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“I believe that defence is the pre-eminent European public good and should be supported, beyond the actions we take at national level, through some kind of common European borrowing,” the prime minister said.

The dialogue

At the beginning of their meeting, the Prime Minister and the Commissioner had the following dialogue:

Kyriakos Mitsotakis:I am very pleased to see you back in Athens, Commissioner. I think you come at a very interesting juncture, as discussions on Europe’s strategic autonomy and the strengthening of our defence capabilities seem to be the top priority of the European Council. You know that Greece has made a significant contribution to this debate.

When it comes to defence spending, we are putting our words into practice, but we are also at the forefront of efforts to encourage Europe to work more closely together on defence procurement, with a focus on new defence capabilities. And at a time when some of the traditional constants of the post-war order seem to be being challenged, I think it is extremely important that we have confidence in our own capabilities as Europe.

We believe strongly in the need to have a public debate on Article 42(7) of the European treaties. We demonstrated our commitment to Cyprus when our neighbouring country was attacked by Hezbollah by sending ships and aircraft. We are particularly looking forward to making this Article operational, so as to strengthen the defence commitment of EU Member States should the need to support a Member State under attack arise again.

And of course, in terms of space, we have taken the first steps, with the launch a few days ago of four new microsatellites and two nanosatellites. We are beginning to establish our own presence in space and, of course, for areas such as civil protection this is an urgent priority.

So let me stop here and welcome you once again. I believe that this debate is particularly important in view of the new Multiannual Financial Framework. I strongly believe that for certain areas that we consider to be an absolute priority we should consider joint European lending to finance projects of common interest.

I believe that defence is the ultimate European public good and should be supported, in addition to the actions we take at national level, through some kind of joint European lending.

Andrius Kubilios: Prime Minister, first of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to meet with you. It is a great pleasure and a great honour for me. Secondly, I agree with everything you said from the beginning, I will try to underline specific points that we consider particularly important.

First of all, we are really pleased to see Greece leading the way in the development of European defence, with all that you are doing: with Achilles Shield, with the 12-year programme of €26 billion. It is really great. I always say to other countries: “look at Greece, follow what they are doing”, because certainly the challenges are quite big, both in terms of developing our capabilities and developing our industry.

We always have to remind ourselves that at the moment, at least from what we see from the public data, Russia is still outpacing us in terms of production with its economy moving at war pace, the numbers are quite different. So that’s why we really need to accelerate.

Secondly, Greece is, no doubt, an inspiring example for us particularly in terms of developing your space capabilities. I congratulate you on the recent launch and on your participation in the very important European programmeGOVSATCOM (Government Satellite Communications) and on the way you are using the Recovery Fund funds. I am trying, and in this case, to tell everybody to take Greece as an example in terms of how to use the resources of the CDF, to follow this good example.

Of course, the next point on which I fully agree with you – and I have spoken about this – is that Article 42, paragraph 7 is very important for us as a first step in trying to look structurally at institutional defence preparedness. That is, we have material defence readiness, which is about producing and providing weapons and more money for defence. But beyond that, the issue is institutional defence readiness and Article 42(7) is really critical.

Having done some groundwork, a little bit of groundwork, I really see that we have quite a lot of very good tools. First of all, on the political side, because when crisis and war are approaching, support from the political side is very important. On the military side, we need to look at how we can coordinate our efforts. But I hope that we will be able to produce, I would say, a manual to help all the institutions to understand what needs to be done.

And the last point: the Greek Presidency is approaching. The timing, it may seem like…

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Right after the Lithuanian Presidency.

Andrius Kubilius: Exactly. We certainly think that defence and space are really very important issues. We hope that some issues will be closed earlier. However, the simplification of the defence framework, the EU Space Regulation and, most importantly of course, the next Multiannual Financial Framework, with increased spending on defence and space – which we hope that governments will support – will depend very much on the Greek Presidency, if the issues are not closed by then.

Again, thank you very much for this meeting, and I very much appreciate what you are doing.