UEF IN THE PRESS | Europe’s best bet is to increasingly rely on itself for its own security and defence

This article was written by Domènec Ruiz Devesa, President of the Union of European Federalists and Former MEP; and Emiliano Alessandri a scholar and practitioner of European and transatlantic security published on the 24 March 2025 in the Royal Institute elcano, about the need for the United States of Europe and a European Defence.

Europe is arguably going through its most challenging geopolitical inflection point in decades. First, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and now US President Donald Trump’s controversial approach to settling the conflict have upended the already fragile European security order that has kept the continent largely at peace for the past 80 years. In this fast-shifting geopolitical context, a disoriented Europe feels vulnerable as perhaps never before.

This paper argues that faced with a White House whose request is no longer that Europe just ‘steps up’ but also that it steps aside on existential issues such as Ukraine’s future, European countries need to increasingly take security and defence into their own hands. While there is nothing to cheer about the decline of NATO, European leaders should work towards immediately reinforcing the European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance but also adopt measures that would protect their security should a post-NATO security order emerge because of the ongoing geopolitical reshuffling.

Although not immediately within reach, the vision of a future European Defence Union should animate and underpin ongoing deliberations among EU countries and their partners. This paper outlines an agenda for Europe in this respect. Meanwhile, all efforts should be put towards supporting Kyiv at this most decisive juncture. How the war ends will determine the security context in which Europe will operate in the years to come.

Read the article here: LINK.