Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participated, via teleconference, at noon in the event for the inauguration of the Strategic Autonomy Chair at the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, where former Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas will take up the position of Director of Studies.
The Prime Minister congratulated Mr. Schinas on his new duties and discussed with him European defence and the challenges facing the European Union.
Referring to the turning points that gave impetus to the concept of strategic autonomy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated: “I think there were already these two watershed moments. The first of all, of course, was the pandemic when we realised our critical dependence on supply chains which we could not control. Then, of course, the eye-opening moment regarding the war in Ukraine, where we realised both our dependence on Russia regarding our inputs of pipe natural gas”.
“But also it was a moment of reckoning in the sense that suddenly we looked ourselves in the mirror and we realised that our defence posture was clearly not where it should have been, and that maybe President Trump was right when during his first term, he pointed the finger at us, Europeans, telling us we should take more ownership regarding our common defence”, the Prime Minister added.
Regarding the future of collective European defence, Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted: “The general idea is that we need joint procurement, we need fewer systems, we need scale when it comes to our defence companies, we need to invest in technology, we need to look at the changing battleground in Ukraine and learn from what is really happening”.
“I think there are some common threads when it comes to defence that we can explore at the European level, and hopefully, some of these priorities can also be included in the next MFF”, the Prime Minister added.
