BRUSSELS — EU defense chief Andrius Kubilius is exploring a new initiative for countries to jointly fund military capabilities like air-to-air refueling now provided by the U.S., three European Parliament officials told POLITICO.
Under the scheme, governments interested in joining could voluntarily devote a share of the higher defense budgets approved last year by NATO countries to jointly develop battlefield kit that helps sustain military operations, the people said, adding that the EU could then help interested countries with procurement.
The U.S. currently provides most of NATO’s so-called strategic enablers, which also include military command and control systems, space-based intelligence, satellite reconnaissance and battlefield logistics platforms.
Kubilius on Tuesday proposed that member states agree “that they will spend some of part of their national defense money” to replace the U.S. enablers. He estimated that the full cost of doing so would be about €500 billion.
“It’s absolutely clear that we shall not be able to finance [it] from the next [EU long-term budget],” he said.
Washington last month gave its NATO allies a detailed list of military assets it no longer wanted to make available to the alliance; the list included long-range reconnaissance drones and KC-135 airborne tankers. That added to existing worries over U.S. commitment to NATO under President Donald Trump.
“We need … to find ways how we can become much more effective in creating in Europe joint projects in conventional defense, especially on so-called strategic enablers, where we are quite heavily dependent on American resources,” Kubilius said last week ahead of a meeting of EU defense ministers in Cyprus.
Kubilius agreed to take the idea forward during a private meeting last week with 16 MEPs in Brussels who form the European Defence Union Group, which advocates for closer EU defense integration, two of the officials said. The initiative remains in very early stages, and it is unclear whether it would end up as a legal proposal or a more informal encouragement.
“We all know strategic enablers are a priority and we agreed to work on this together,” said one of the officials, adding that MEPs would discuss the idea in more detail next week.
However, the initiative is likely to run into obstacles, including capitals being cautious about giving Brussels a say over procurement, U.S. resistance to losing key arms sales in Europe, and the need to develop and build equipment at speed to deter Russia.
The European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, last week said the Commission must launch a short-term procurement drive focused on delivering these capabilities immediately where possible, paired with a medium-term industrial strategy to develop more complex technologies.
“If development does not start now, Europe will still be dependent on American systems in the mid-2030s,” it stated in a report.
Developing joint capabilities will also come at a steep cost — a challenge for many European countries struggling with high debt and the impact of the energy crisis linked to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
The Kiel Institute, a think tank, last month estimated that replacing U.S. command and control systems, satellite reconnaissance, communications and navigation assets, space launch infrastructure, aerial reconnaissance like early warning radars, military cloud software and AI, electronic warfare systems and strategic airlift capabilities would cost Europe a minimum of €200 billion and take a decade or more.
Other experts argue the overall cost of substituting U.S. non-nuclear military capabilities on the continent would be about $1 trillion.
Reinier van Lanschot, a Dutch MEP in the Greens group who spearheaded the European Defence Union, said: “Because no single EU country can afford all strategic enablers on their own, common European strategic enablers are essential to build an independent European defence.”
The European Commission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by POLITICO.
This article has been updated.