Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, call for the creation of a common shield for Europe’s air defense, with EU funding, in a joint letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
According to information from the Bloomberg agency, the two leaders request that the matter be discussed at the next session of the European Council, which is scheduled for June 27th and 28th.
The head of the Commission, who is running for a second term in next month’s European elections, appeared to embrace Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Donald Tusk’s proposal, saying in her publication on X: “We will continue to support Ukraine and, at the same time, time to strengthen the defense we. We need less fragmentation and more joint projects, like an air defense shield proposed by @kmitsotakis and @donaldtusk.”
In their letter, the two prime ministers propose that the shield would protect Europe from enemy aircraft, missiles and drones, while underlining that the approval of such a project at European level would send a clear message in all directions about the determination of the Old Continent in defending itself. Greece and Poland are, together with the United States, the NATO members that spent the most as a percentage of their GDP in 2023.
The two leaders also emphasize, always according to Bloomberg, that the construction of a common shield would act as a catalyst in favor of the modernization and strengthening of the European defense industry, at the same time that it would launch a greater degree of cooperation in this field.
It is recalled that Greece supports other joint initiatives, such as the possible issuance of European bonds for defense expenses or the creation of a community fund to finance the acquisition of weapons.
According to the cable, Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed the issue of the shield – which he compared in recent statements to the Iron Dome anti-missile and anti-aircraft system used by Israel – when he met with Donald Tusk in Warsaw in April.