Opening remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the EP Plenary Session, on the Upcoming NATO summit on 24-26 June 2025

Opening remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the EP Plenary Session, on the Upcoming NATO summit on 24-26 June 2025

Dear President,

Honourable Members of the European Parliament,

Next week, leaders will meet in The Hague for the 2025 NATO Summit.

The significance of the context cannot be overstated.

We are living in very dangerous, tough times.

Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union.

Russia is:

• violating our airspace;
• conducting provocative military manoeuvres near EU borders;
• targeting our trains and planes;
• attacking our pipelines, undersea fiber-optic cables, and electricity grids;
• assaulting our industry, including companies supporting Ukraine.
• And is recruiting criminals to carry out sabotage attacks

And it is steadily building up its military forces and expanding its nuclear arsenal.

Last year Russia spent more on defence than the EU combined.

This year, Russia is spending more on defence than on its own health care, education and social policy combined.

This is a long-term plan for long-term aggression. You don't spend that much on military if you do not plan to use it.

Those who border Russia have always felt Russia's provocations more. Those of us with a history of Soviet imperialism feel it the most. But Russia's threat to transatlantic unity and security is a problem for us all.

Every European country - and indeed every NATO ally - must be thinking about defence. In 2014, NATO countries pledged to actually invest 2% of GDP in defence by 2024. But in one year, the geopolitical situation has shifted so dramatically that we are now looking at a 5% target.

Europe's collective economic might is unmatched. I don't believe there is any threat we can't overcome, if we act together, and with our NATO allies.

Three points.

First, the NATO summit is first and foremost about ramping up defence spending.

President von der Leyen said to this House in March that the European Union must pull every financial lever we have to do this.

The national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact provides budgetary space for Member States to spend more on defence. This could mobilise up to 650 billion euro for defence over the next four years, and add 1.5% of GDP to Member States' defence budgets.

The new Security Action for Europe instrument - SAFE:

• is an offer of 150 billion euro in loans, based on a few principles:
• They finance purchases mainly from European producers and therefore boost Europe's defence industry in the process;
• contracts are multiannual so the industry gets the predictability it needs;
• and they focus on joint procurement which will push industry to scale up quickly while prices come down.

The SAFE instrument is also open to EU partners who sign Security and Defence Partnerships. We have signed seven of these already, including with four NATO allies: Norway, Albania, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom. We hope to one more, within a short time frame with another NATO ally - Canada - very, very soon.

When NATO leaders discuss defence spending at the Summit, these examples underline how the European Union directly helps our 23 Member States who are also NATO allies to meet their NATO targets.

And a stronger Europe Union is also a stronger NATO.

Second, Ukraine.

The European Union is doing its part here too, not least because Ukraine is Europe's first line of defence.

We know that Russia responds to strength and nothing else. That is why we have just proposed an 18th sanctions package to pile on the pressure. Every sanction weakens Russia's ability to fight this war.

Do not be fooled. Thanks to EU sanctions, Russia has lost tens of billions of euros in oil revenues. Its sovereign wealth fund declined by 6 billion only last month. Sanctions work.

In parallel, the EU is the biggest provider of support to Ukraine, including over 50 billion euro in military assistance.

We have to do more for Ukraine, for our own security too. To quote my friend, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, if we don't help Ukraine further, we should all start learning Russian. The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield today, the stronger they will be around the negotiation table, when Russia finally is ready to talk.

Third, the importance of unity.

Dear President,

Honourable Members,

Europe is under attack. And our continent sits in a world becoming more dangerous every day.
But Europe's will to act together is real.

Over the past seven decades, we have built a common market, strong European economies and an unbreakable European spirit.

Has it been hard? Of course it has, we have 27 democracies. And the voices in this chamber only underline how many diverse opinions there are in Europe.

But what unites us - what must keep uniting us - is a goal to keep our citizens safe. This is a goal we share with every single one of our NATO allies, including the United States.

I spoke at the start of Russia's threat to Europe but Russia poses a 360 degree threat in the world:

• From helping shield the Assad regime's use of chemical agents against the Syrian people;
• to arming and training mercenary forces from the Sahel to Sudan.
• or using its shadow fleet to smuggle weapons to Libya, in direct breech of the international arms embargo;

Russia is threat to global security.

During the Cold War, the United States and its allies far outclassed the Soviet Union and it won them the Cold War.

Today, against NATO and the EU, Russia doesn't stand a chance. But we must stick together.

When NATO leaders meet next week, keeping unity in the alliance is as much a priority as spending more on defence.

Dear President,

Honourable Members,

Tough times require tough resolve.

Europe has always shown this when it needs to.
And that is the message we take to the NATO Summit next week.

Thank you.