On Wednesday, April 9th, 2025, the European Institute of Romania organised the first event of this year in the European News in the Spotlight series, titled “EU’s security defined through 3Cs: Cohesion, Competitiveness and Competences”. This type of debate aims to inform the general public about the role and the work of the Council of the European Union in coordinating the policies of the Member States of the European Union (EU). It also addresses the thematic issues pursued by the current Presidency of the Council, held by Poland in the first semester of 2025.
The debate was attended by representatives of academia, civil society, experts and researchers from Poland and Romania. The proceedings of the event were held in English.
Some of the main highlights of today’s debate are:
- We are witnessing a multidimensional war, and its cognitive side, appealing to people’s emotions and thought processes, is the most important one that can have the most dramatic long-term consequences for our society.
- Two ideas that deserve to be supported in the future are related to the transatlantic relationship and military power. The first one shares the idea that the Euro-Atlantic relations represent an advantage for everyone involved, even for the stability of the entire world. The second idea is related to the consideration of military power as an absolute advantage. We should be aware that this is an illusion, military power without soft power is utopic.
- Increasing competitiveness means also enhancing prosperity, and the European Union needs to invest more to support innovation and avoid falling behind other economic actors (an objective also indicated in the Letta and Draghi reports). These investments must also be made by economic agents (currently, the largest private investments in research and development are made by the five large American companies: Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft, with the only European company present in the statistics being Volkswagen).
- Without investments in innovation and technological development, the European Union will not be able to ensure its own security.
- In 2024, Poland announced the launch of the East Shield project, a defence initiative designed to fortify its eastern border with Belarus and the Russian Federation’s exclave Kaliningrad. This initiative contributes to strengthening the security of both Poland and the Eastern flank, as well as the whole of Europe. It is expected to include this project on the European Union’s defence and security agenda. At the same time, the initiative shows to the United States that Europe is beginning to assume a greater responsibility for consolidating and securing its own defence.
- A major problem standing in the way of strengthening EU’s defence is the difference in perception between its Member States concerning the security risks and challenges. While countries in the Central and Eastern Europe need a solid defence and security framework at the EU level, countries in the South are much more concerned about issues related to migration, which affect them directly. To overcome this obstacle, there is a need to improve strategic communication at the EU level and raise awareness of the challenges Europe is facing.
- In the current context, regional cooperation could play an important role in keeping close ties between the US and Europe, in terms of potential benefits for both sides. The Three Seas Initiative is one of the examples that could be considered.