Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has told delegates at a congress of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) that “we are living in new times, in a pre-war epoch”.
Speaking in Bucharest, Romania, and referencing the war in Ukraine, Mr Tusk said that “the times of blissful calm are over” and that the “post-war epoch is gone”.
He said Europe faced a simple choice to either defend its borders, territory and principles or “we will fall”.
“It is not our fault that our daily vocabulary includes such words as fighting, bombings, rocket attacks, genocide,” he said.
Migration and EU defence cooperation were two of the main talking points discussed by EU leaders who spoke at today’s EPP congress.
The event culminated in the election of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the party’s lead nominee to retain the Commission’s top job.
As the EPP’s only candidate for the nomination, Ms von der Leyen was elected by 400 votes to 89.
Recent polls suggest that the EPP will remain the largest bloc within the European Parliament after elections across all member states for the 720-seat parliament in June.
Ms von der Leyen’s nomination, though predictable, brings her closer to remaining as European Commission president for another five-year term.
Speaking to delegates, Ms von der Leyen said that the war in Ukraine “is now more entrenched and intense than ever”.
“We’re seeing the potency and the dangers of a rising and disturbing league of dictators, the war in Gaza and the destabilisation of the Middle East,” she said.
The EPP manifesto calls for the establishment of a European Defence Union to integrate European land, sea, cyber and air forces.
However, the manifesto also proposes that EU member states “that do not wish to mobilise their armed forces” could contribute financially to a European Fund for External Military Intervention.
Speaking to reporters, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, attending the congress along with Fine Gael MEPs, dismissed the idea that the proposed European Defence Union could represent an EU army.
He saidf: “It’s not an EU army, and I don’t ever envisage that there’ll be a European army. You know, there’s never been a NATO army.
“What a European defence is, is European countries cooperating around defence, and around security. And we desperately need to do that and do that better”.
