EU Commission Vice President Delivers Remarks upon Arrival at Informal EU Council

On Monday, the vice-president of the European Commission Kaja Kallas delivered her remarks upon arrival at the Informal European Council.

Kallas said: 

"Good morning, everybody.

Today we are going to discuss European defence, and how we can do more – together. I think this is extremely important, because we are in the situation where we are.

So, not only how we do things together, but also where we get the funding for doing things together – which is always a complicated issue.

Then, of course, Europe's defences are closely interlinked with NATO. So, a much stronger cooperation with NATO is needed. And that brings me also to our allies.

Ties with the United Kingdom and the United States are extremely important to strengthen our own defence as well.

I am hoping for very, very good discussions today.

Q&A.

Q. High Representative does it make sense to do a defence summit now when seven EU countries [inaudible]?

This is a big issue. I mean, this target, this 2% target, was set in 2014 so that all the countries have 10 years to actually reach this target. But it is clear that we need to do more, because we have a full-scale war going on in Europe and Russia has not changed this goal. The understanding is here, we need to do more, but of course it also requires some difficult decisions from different Member States.

Q. President Trump said that the US could impose tariffs on the EU. What do you think the EU should do? How should you react?

We were listening carefully to those words and of course we are preparing also on our side. But what is clear is that there are no winners in trade wars. If the United States starts the trade war, then the one laughing on the side is China. We are very interlinked. We need America and America needs us as well. The tariffs increased costs. They are not good for the jobs, not good for the customers either. That is clear."