[Voice of the Observer Network]
Recently, multiple unknown drones have interfered with multiple airports in Denmark, Norway and Germany, and airport operations have been once affected. The West took the opportunity to hype the "invasion threat" of Russian drones, while Russia accused the EU of "making excuses" to increase military spending.
In this context, European Commission President Von der Leyen proposed a new type of radar and interceptor barrier to help protect the EU’s eastern borders. Last month, in her “Alliance Speech”, she referred to the idea as a “drone wall”.
According to a report by the European edition of Politico.eu on the 3rd, EU countries far away from Russia questioned the concept of "drone wall", not only worried about its feasibility and cost, but also doubting how it coordinated with the military plans of the EU and NATO, and more wary of whether this move would become a means for Brussels to compete for the dominance of national defense policies.
The core of the disagreement is that Brussels wants to unite the EU's front-line countries to mobilize EU funding to fund the "unmanned wall" project, which requires the unanimous agreement of all EU member states.
Southern European countries have a negative attitude toward this: At the EU leaders’ meeting in Copenhagen this week, both Italian Prime Minister Meloni and Greek Prime Minister Mizotakis said EU defense programs should benefit the whole of the EU, not just the countries on the east border.
According to the current design, two-thirds of the funding of the "drone wall" project is required to be allocated to Eastern European countries, which directly sparked dissatisfaction in Western and Southern European countries such as Germany, France, Italy.
Politico.eu that at the Copenhagen conference, this disagreement was exposed both in public and in closed talks.
According to a diplomat who learned about the contents of the meeting, German Prime Minister Merts criticized the plan at the meeting with "extremely harsh" terms.
German government officials have revealed that Germany, the EU’s largest economy, is significantly increasing defense spending and hopes other EU countries will follow, but are opposed to funding defense projects by any means of jointly raising debt at the current stage.
Opposition in Copenhagen prompted countries at the forefront of the threat to call for "unity" from all parties.
In an interview with Politico.eu, Finnish Prime Minister Olpo called for “unity over the past 20 years on issues such as the new coronavirus, economic issues and the migration crisis.
Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen referred to the plan on Wednesday, using the expression "European Network of Anti-Drone Measures (European network of anti-drone measures). When reported why she didn't use the term "drone wall", she replied, "I don't care what its name is as long as it can work."
Andrius Kubilius, the European Commissioner for Defense and Space Affairs and former Prime Minister of Lithuania, also immediately defended the plan. But he also admitted that calling the plan a "wall" could be misleading.
“This will not be a new ‘Machino’ line of defense,” he explained.
The Maginot Line was a fortification system built by France in its northeast border area during World War II to prevent German invasion. However, this expensive fortification was finally broken through by the Germans due to French negligence.
Looking at France's attitude towards the "drone wall" at this time, it is somewhat thought-provoking.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Thursday that “drone and anti-drone defense are indeed urgent, but we must be clear that there is no ‘perfect wall’ in Europe.”
He added, “I will be very cautious in the drone incident and I don’t want to blame any of the parties.”
In addition to the huge differences among member states around fiscal expenditure, European media reported that the "UAV Wall" project still faces many unresolved problems: the defense capabilities of EU countries are uneven, the standards are inconsistent, and the financial guarantee is insufficient, resulting in the slow implementation of the project. Even fragmentation.
In addition, the EU also lacks experience in UAV defense technology. From the examples of Nordic countries dealing with UAVs, it can be seen that false alarms and missed detections often occur, and the stability of countermeasures is difficult to guarantee. If the interception is accidentally injured, cross-border or out of control, it will easily lead to diplomatic friction and legal disputes.
There is also concern that some EU countries may view the “drone wall” as a shortcut to solve defense problems.
However, the "Politico.eu" report mentioned that although all parties debated about the scale and name of the "drone wall", EU leaders finally approved the defense proposals proposed by the European Commission, including the "drone wall" plan. This means that the plan is still expected to advance in some form, but its timetable, cost and specific functions are still open to question.
No binding decisions were taken at the Copenhagen Conference. According to a report by Germany's "Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung" on the 1st, European Council President Antonio Costa revealed that EU leaders will hold their next meeting in Brussels in three weeks to make decisions on the "drone wall."