European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the Anniversary of Magna Charta Universitatum Vilnius, 16 October 2026 Good morning. Welcome to Vilnius, my home town. A special welcome to all of you who will today be signing the Magna Charta Universitatum. A joint commitment to shared values. And a very special welcome to the two universities from Ukraine. Alone among ...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the Anniversary of Magna Charta Universitatum Vilnius, 16 October 2026 Good morning. Welcome to Vilnius, my home town. A special welcome to all of you who will today be signing the Magna Charta Universitatum. A joint commitment to shared values. And a very special welcome to the two universities from Ukraine. Alone among the nearly 1000 signatories you are from a country at war, a war for national survival. You are defending these shared values under the most difficult circumstances we can imagine. Under daily drone and missile attacks. With students, professors and staff defending their country on the frontline. And giving their lives. So my dear Ukrainian friends: welcome and Slava Ukraini. I thank the Mykolas Romeris University for organising this event. And especially for organising it here. In the Aula Parva. The small auditorium of Vilnius university. My Alma Mater Vilnensis. This is where I studied in my younger years. My heart was in the humanities. But I went on to study physics. Why? Let me explain by referring to the Magna Charta Universitatum. As you know its first principle is: independent research and teaching. Free from any political influence. And the third principle is: free enquiry and debate. And none of this was possible under Soviet occupation. My father was a literature professor. And he had a lot of trouble with the regime. And he advised me: don ' t study literature. You will have a lot of problems. Study sciences instead. There is no ideology in science. So, I studied physics. It ' s worth remembering some of the most famous Soviet dissidents also started out in the sciences: Andrey Sakharov, Alexandr Solhzenytsin, Natan Sharansky. And this brings hope. Even the most oppressive totalitarian dictatorships in the world, could not extinguish science, knowledge. Or truth. In the end, the open spirit of science always triumphs. Today I want to discuss two things. The power of ideas. And the power of unity. Everything starts with the power of ideas. The 21st century is the century of speed and of big bangs . I will discuss three. First big bang – Artificial Intelligence. The speed and Big Bang of Artificial Intelligence is changing our world. According to some may even end our world. AI offers many opportunities. For medicine, climate research, for security and defence, for space exploration. But also disruption – as you at our universities know only too well. How do we educate students in the age of AI? Is AI a friend or enemy of education? How do we make sure humanity controls machine, and not the other way round? You deal with many of these questions. You are the pioneers of the AI revolution. Both in developing the technology, using the technology and helping to understand social consequences. Second big bang – Space. We are at the start of a space revolution. In the next ten years 50,000 satellites will be launched, more than in the entire 70 years of the space age before us. Like the 19 th century was the age of rail, the 20 th century the age of the car and the plane, the 21 st century will be the age of space. Our European Galileo satellite navigation is the best satellite navigation in world. Available on 95% of mobile telephones in the world. 4.5 billion devices. And our European Copernicus is the best satellite observation in the world. Providing data that we share freely with the whole world. Because sharing knowledge is power. And this is just the beginning. We will see people on the moon again. Exploration of Mars and beyond. A booming orbital economy. Factories in space. Solar energy from space. And mountains of space data. Space will be part of all aspects of our daily lives. And again: universities are the source of this Big Bang and its leader. You are the pioneers, shaping space technology. Using space data to analyse climate change, pollution, and agriculture to understand and improve our world. But also analysing the social and economic consequences. Here there is a big challenge for Europe. We risk falling behind. We need a Big Bang, for example, when it comes to rockets and launchers. There's a big gap between what we need to launch and the launching opportunities we have. We need to very rapidly increase how many rockets we can launch. And have new types of rockets that can return and be reused. And there will be no space Big Bang without universities. You educate the engineers and do the research that will power the space revolution. Third big bang: defence. To keep the peace on the European continent we need a defence Big Bang. Nearly 1000 universities have signed the Magna Charta Universitatum. And more are joining today. Russian universities were suspended in 2022. Because they betrayed the principles of the Charta. By openly supporting Putin ' s war of aggression against Ukraine. The situation is not improving. Russia is escalating and is still not being deterred. Next year Russia will allocate 180 billion euro for its military budget, a 33% increase. In PPP terms, Russia next year will spend the same amount or even a little bit more than all the EU Member States are going to spend together (around 500-550 billion euro); Russia is still outproducing us. If day X comes, we will face a battle tested Russian army, able to use 10 million drones per year (that is around 30,000 drones per day), with a war economy and a stronger army than they had in 2022. Russia is preparing for a long war and confrontation. Our goal is peace. To deter aggression. And prevent war. The ancient Romans said: if you want peace, prepare for war. That is why since I started as Commissioner, I called for a ‘ big bang' in defence. We have succeeded in achieving a financial big bang. Big European loans for defence. Member States pledged to NATO to spend close to 6 trillion euro for defence by 2035. Now we need to create a production big bang. But it all starts with the power of ideas. Many of our Commission proposals are based on foundational works of research and thinking. The Letta and Draghi and Niinistö reports on the economy and security to name but three. Recently, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the idea of a European Security Council as part of a new defence architecture on the European continent And this idea was first discussed in think tanks and academic debates. I have taken part in many such discussions. My point was always very simple: there will be no material “ big bang” in defence without an “ intellectual big bang” in defence, we depend on our universities. And we depend on you for defence innovation. We have some of the best universities in the world. Some of the best technical universities. Some of the best researchers in the world. And brightest students. Universities are where ideas are born and where innovation starts. They are the birthplace of the next generation of start ups in defence and space. There ' s a growing need for technical and engineering skills, in many sectors of society including defence and space. And universities can help to develop these skills. But it ' s not only about the sciences. Also humanities, economics and social sciences. What you are researching today is European policy tomorrow. And we should not forget that Universities not only study society but are also part of the society. The title of this year ' s celebration of the Magna Charta Universitatum is “ Beyond resilience.” For resilient societies we need resilient universities. Here in Lithuania, and other Member States there's a concept of “ total defence”. Defence readiness involving all of society. Integrating security into all aspects of university life. Not only encouraging engineering or innovation. But also for example: first aid training for students. Education to counter disinformation. So the next issue I want to discuss: the power of unity. In Europe our greatest weakness is division. Our greatest strength is unity. Would the Magna Charta Universitatum be stronger, if each university signed their own statement, or if 1000 universities signed it together? Would the United States be weaker or stronger with 50 separate armies, 50 defence polices, 50 budgets? In Europe we have 27 armies, 27 defence policies, 27 defence budgets. Because historically, and according to the treaties, defence is a national prerogative. And now we are bringing more unity in all areas of our defence readiness. I always say there are three kinds of defence readiness. First: material defence readiness. That is the power of money, the power of production. Second: Institutional defence readiness. The power of organisation. How we organise our defence on the European continent. Third: Political defence readiness. Our willpower to fight, defend, deter against Russian threats and hybrid attacks. First we are bringing unity in our institutional defence readiness. I mentioned already that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a European Security Council. Because: “… our doctrine, our institutions and our decision-making have not kept pace with the new reality. Our systems were made for a different world. They are driven by well-intentioned attempts at consensus and compromise. But we need to consider whether they are still fit for purpose.” A very clear call for “ big bang” reforms in our institutional defence readiness, because we face a crisis of the status quo in today's defence architecture of the European continent. More will be made clear in our security strategy, that we expect to present soon. And here we need also Europe ' s academic community. Because I am sure there will be a big debate. So now we need your knowledge and wisdom, to help shape our future defence architecture. But above all we need your independent and critical perspective, as outlined in the Charta. Second we are bringing more unity in our material defence readiness. To defend against ballistic missiles what would be more effective: 27 missile defence systems, or one continental system, integrated with NATO? Israel has its “ Iron Dome”, the United States are looking how to build a “ Golden Dome” – what about a “ European Dome”? In the past it was difficult to imagine something like this. But now, we are starting to change things and learn a lot from Ukraine. With new legal instruments we are making pan-European defence projects possible, called European Defence Projects of Common Interest. Projects that no country can build alone, but that defend the entire Union. 26 member states, Norway and Ukraine are joining forces on drones and counter drones. And 13 Member States, Norway and Ukraine in the Eastern Flank Watch project – to guard Europe ' s Eastern border. But two big problems in our unity have got to do with two of our greatest European achievements. Still these two do not apply to defence. Our single market and free movement. It ' s difficult to understand. With our single, unified market we are the second economy in the world, with a GDP of nearly 20 trillion euro. The single market is the foundation of our economy, of our prosperity and our success. But not when it comes to defence. There we have 27 different defence markets. Our fragmented defence market undermines our defence readiness and our ability to deter aggression. And prevents our defence companies from becoming global leaders. We will soon present proposals on the defence market, because we need to start mobilising the power of our single market for our defence. And the same is true for freedom of movement. There is freedom of movement, but not if you are soldier. Freedom of movement is the best loved right of Europeans. Around 15 million Europeans live and work in a different Member State. That ' s twice the population of the Baltic States put together! And many of them are academics and researchers of universities. Our universities depend on freedom of movement. And our students on Erasmus love free movement. On top of that every year Europeans make nearly 250 million trips to other EU countries. But we have a paradoxical situation: It is easier for a Russian tourist on a Schengen visa to move through Europe, than for a NATO soldier. Some Member States ask 45 days advance notice before moving troops. It can take months for soldiers and equipment to move from the west of Europe, to here, Europe ' s eastern flank and our first line of defence. We are now bringing unity here too. We launched new military mobility rules to cut red tape and mobilise the power of free movement for our defence. I hope Member States and European Parliament will approve these proposals still this year. Finally, we need unity in our political defence readiness. That is our willingness as a society to defend ourselves. Russia is trying to undermine this willingness with threats and hybrid attacks. On the European level, we have initiatives to improve security, including cyber security. In her State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a European counter-hybrid playbook and an Emergency Security Protocol, to deal with threats below armed aggression. But we can ' t build resilient societies, without the society itself. And nor can we build it from above. And that ' s why the Magna Charta universitatum is so important. A clear assertion of what you stand for. A commitment to unity. A commitment to shared values, shared goals and a shared future. The title of this celebration in Vilnius is B “ eyond resilience”.And that is certainly appropriate for universities. If we look at some of the countries represented in the audience. Oxford and Bologna – over 900 years old. Jagiellonian University in Poland – nearly 700 years old. KU Leuven in Belgium – 600 years old. Universities of Leiden in the Netherlands, Vilnius and Malta – between 400 and 500 years old. Universities are some of the oldest institutions in Europe. Older than some countries. Universities survived disasters, dictatorships and wars. You are among the most resilient institutions we have. So it is not I who can teach you about resilience. It is you who can teach me a lot about resilience. Because it all starts with the power of ideas. SPEECH/26/2179 <@rel_link@>
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