Accelerating the Production of Defence Equipment: President von der Leyen at the 2026 NATO Summit

Thank you so much for having us here. This is a great opportunity indeed to show how closely we are working together, the European Union and NATO. Actually, I was just thinking today one of the reasons is my dear friend Mark because we have both experiences on both sides. You were for 14 or 16 years—14 years prime minister—so he was in the European Council and I was for five years defense minister. So I was sitting in NATO. Now it's the other way around, and therefore we know both how important a close cooperation between the European Union and NATO is. Second, I just listened to the panel before us and it's very clear all member states of the European Union and allies have one single set of forces. So they assign these single set of forces either to NATO missions or to EU missions, UN missions, or coalition of the willing. But to make this possible, what we need is interoperability. And of course in this geostrategic and geopolitical environment, we need a massive surge in defense investment. And here the European Union is indeed massively stepping up. We have our Rearm Europe program which mobilizes up to 800 billion euros till 2030. In this program is SAFE: 150 billion euros for joint procurement. And not to forget the next long-term budget will have 131 billion euros for military capabilities plus 17 billion euros for military mobility, which is also of utmost importance: streets, bridges, ports, airports, etc. The infrastructure also has to be here on the European side and on SAFE is for us very important. As I said, the joint procurement—here we have good news: we have now 10 agreements worth 100 billion euros. SAFE is per design open also to partners and other countries. 35% of the cost components can go outside the European Union, but of course 65% have to be in the European Union, and that's the point how we strengthen the defense industrial base because with this taxpayers' money we want of course a return on investment and we want good jobs in Europe. We want research and development in Europe. So that's important for us. My last sentence on this: the door is more open than the 35% for countries outside the European Union. If there is a security and defense agreement signed, Canada is the first one to have done this. So these possibilities are also there. So you see a wide spectrum of investment.

Yes, Turkey is one of the largest armed forces within NATO, of very big importance and has always played an important role in the alliance but also of course in our relationship with the European Union. And as I said, if you only look at SAFE, which are the 150 billion euros, 35%—that's a lot—is open to work for example together with Turkey, but the 800 billion up to 2030 is the decision of the member states how to invest their defense allocation in order to fill the gaps. So there's a wide opportunity to have a very close cooperation with each other. For us it's very important to be totally aligned with the NATO targets because as I said, one single set of forces, we know where the gaps are and we have to work very closely together. So for example, the NDPP, the NATO Defense Planning Process, is for us very important so that we fill the gaps in a cost-efficient manner. But I want to add another point. We also want to work very closely with Ukraine. The panel before us described the phenomenal innovative power that Ukraine has, and this we have to use because we have to step up in our defense capabilities fast, at a reasonable cost, and smart. And Ukraine has proven all this in the last years under the pressure of the war. This is the reason why the European Union for the first time opened an innovation office in Kyiv to have the direct contact with the Kyiv industrial base. Secondly, we are encouraging our companies to go into joint venture with Ukrainian companies. And thirdly, we as a European Union are working on a longer-term partnership in order to look how to boost our cutting-edge technology base in our defense industrial base in the European Union together with Ukraine. We can learn a lot from Ukraine and we have to learn a lot because they are not only highly innovative but also battlefield experienced. So this whole picture shows how much we are stepping up here together with NATO because we share the same interests and we share the same values and we know what's at stake.