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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote Speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the Forum on Military Mobility and Resilience Vilnius, 17 February 2026 Good morning. When I think about military mobility I think of something President Zelenky said in his inspiring speech in Munich last Saturday. As Zelenskyy said at the start of the invasion, the Americans used to say “we own the clock”. And after fou...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote Speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the Forum on Military Mobility and Resilience Vilnius, 17 February 2026 Good morning. When I think about military mobility I think of something President Zelenky said in his inspiring speech in Munich last Saturday. As Zelenskyy said at the start of the invasion, the Americans used to say “we own the clock”. And after four years of war President Zelensky's experience is: “In war, the war itself owns time…” “[War] uses that time against people…That is why not a single day, not a single opportunity to protect life can be wasted”. So I ask myself: If day X would come - would we own time? Would we own the clock? Imagine it's 2030. That's the year intelligence services say Russia will be ready and willing to test NATO. And 100,000 Russian soldiers are building up at the EU border and NATO border. Just like they did at the Ukrainian border, four years ago. Can we still prevent day X? Can we deter the attack? First, what we need to understand - there is no credible deterrence without military mobility. Military mobility determines whether European solidarity and collective defence is theoretical or operational. It determines whether reinforcement is credible or delayed. It determines whether deterrence is convincing or uncertain. Solidarity must move. Without mobility, solidarity risks becoming symbolic. To match a 100,000 army build up, we would need to move similar numbers of soldiers and equipment – and fast. From the West where men and material are – to the East where they are needed. That is what solidarity and collective defence is about. So imagine you're a commander of a division – tens of thousands of soldiers. Thousands of vehicles. If today, you get the order to move out you will also get a very big headache. Your tanks and soldiers are tied down by red tape. We now have freedom of movement in Europe, but not if you're a soldier. Some Member States ask for 45 days advance notice, for troop movements. Customs officials in one Member State once stopped allied tanks from moving across. Why? Because they were heavier than road traffic rules allowed. So they had to be transported by sea instead. Taking weeks instead of days. Not only is there paperwork. The rules on military movements are fragmented. Not only nationally but sometimes even regionally. Different rules, different procedures, for every Member State. You have to deal with them not in parallel, but one after the other. So that's delay, on top of delay, on top of delay. Headache on top of headache. And sometimes small things make big differences. The word “convoy” means different things in different countries. For example: in one country you need to move as one unit. In another, you can split the convoy, so a military convoy that's legal in one country, is breaking the rules in another. While European soldiers fill out papers, Russian soldiers fill the Suwalki gap! And after the paper problems come the real world obstacles. Capacity problems: the lack of flatbed vehicles, to move your heavy equipment. Bridges and roads too weak to carry tanks. Or tunnels too small. Causing long detours and traffic jams. Where you are vulnerable to attack. Our peacetime rulebook is not fit for military mobility. Neither is our peacetime infrastructure. It could take weeks or even months to move troops from one end of Europe to the other. That will not deter Putin, that will invite Putin. To be able to deter Putin we are bringing unity to our military mobility. Creating a military Schengen. We are doing this with EU added value: EU laws. EU Money.EU coordination. Last November we presented our Military Mobility Package. With binding EU rules. To replace a chaotic patchwork of 27 different national rules with one single, clear European rulebook. With streamlined customs formalities. A single notification process. We're cutting movement from weeks and months, to days and hours. For times of crisis: we set up a common emergency framework [EMERS]. The rules are simple. In time of emergency: No more permits to move soldiers. Enough to notify the country, which you need to cross. And in peacetime: one single European permit. Valid for the entire European Union. To be issued within three days at most. And to speed things up: a new digital platform for cross-border transport permissions and customs formalities. Besides cutting paperwork to save time and “own the clock”, we are addressing capacity problems. We are setting up a Solidarity Pool to share key transport capabilities. Like flatbed trains or medical cars. And we are boosting infrastructure. We propose 18 billion euro under the next multiannual EU budget, the MFF for dual use infrastructure. Ten times more than today. To make our roads and bridges stronger and harbours better for military use. And better protect our critical infrastructure from attack. We must start with upgrading the worst bottlenecks on four key military mobility corridors, as identified by Member States. And we need to be prepared for anything. That's why we are introducing stress tests to check mobility readiness. The first stress test will focus on fast movement of military material to Ukraine and the Eastern border. Last but not least: For success we need coordination. And governance. It's no good to have a great road on one side of the border, if there is no road on the other side. We propose to set up a Military Mobility Transport Group. To work together with NATO. To coordinate national actions and investment priorities and building of mobility assets. To coordinate stress tests, building of logistics parks and strategic enablers such as air lift and air to air refuelling. To make sure military movement is fast and efficient. The first negotiations between Parliament and Council on this package are expected this summer. And I hope they too will own the clock and approve this legislation as soon as possible. In short, we have put forward a military mobility agenda to make sure that, when the time comes, Europe and NATO will own the clock. In 2024 Lithuanians made a war games simulation. Together with former commanders of US troops in Europe. These war games showed Lithuanian armed forces can defend the whole territory of Lithuania. For ten days. But victory in these wargames assumes three things: First, Lithuania is investing into defence more than 5% of GDP; Second, Lithuania is able to procure weapons. Produced now, not after 2030. Third, NATO will come within 10 days (it means - NATO partners will have to the kit to bring and the means to bring it to Lithuania) Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine shattered long-standing assumptions about stability on our continent. It reminded us that geography matters. It reminded us that time matters. Deterrence depends not only on the forces we possess, but on our ability to deploy and sustain them. Geography has placed Lithuania, and other Member States of Eastern Flank at the outer edge of the Union — and at the frontline of Europe's deterrence posture. Eastern Flank countries live with strategic geography that cannot be altered. What can be altered is Europe's level of preparedness. For Eastern Flank countries, the decisive factor in crisis is time. For the countries on Europe's Eastern Flank, military mobility is a matter of life and death. In the current security environment, distance from reinforcement hubs in Western Europe translates directly into strategic exposure. Military mobility reduces that exposure. Deterrence depends not only on the forces we possess, but on our ability to deploy and sustain them. Deterrence depends on the certainty that reinforcements can arrive rapidly, predictably and at scale. Ukraine's defence has demonstrated a fundamental reality of modern warfare: Courage defends territory. Logistics sustains defence. The ability to move everything what is needed efficiently across Europe has been central to Ukraine's resilience. And railways are playing crucial role in the resilience of Ukraine. Roads provide flexibility. Air transport provides speed for limited loads. Maritime routes provide strategic depth. But rail provides scale. And scale is essential for sustained deterrence. In a crisis, the decisive factor is not only how quickly a first unit arrives — but how effectively follow- on forces can be deployed and sustained. This makes rail a backbone of reinforcement planning. Without rail readiness, large-scale mobility becomes slower, more expensive and less sustainable. In conclusion, Can we prevent day X? I believe we can, if we get our act together. We have created opportunities to get the weapons and equipment we need. And to get them to the border at speed. And now we need to get it done. We must remember as General Pershing said: infantry wins battles. Logistics win wars. As we shape the next MFF, the question is not whether we can afford to invest in military mobility. The question is whether we can afford not to. Infrastructure is security policy. Budgetary choices are strategic choices. If Europe wants credible deterrence, it must fund credible mobility. And that requires commitment — from the Union and from every Member State And we must also remember: Like in World War Two: victory will not only depend on armies. It will depend on factories. And on mobility in between of the factories and the armies on the front line. It is simple mathematics. I am a physicist. In Physics, Mass times acceleration equals Force. In defence, mass times acceleration equals victory. In this case, victory is deterrence and peace. Production gives mass, mobility - acceleration. So let's work together for mass and acceleration, for production and mobility. And for victory and peace. SPEECH/26/425
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