European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Kubilius at Future Forces Forum 2026 Prague, 21 October 2026 Good afternoon, It is my great pleasure to be here at this prominent Future Forces Forum. It's great to be part of this discussion on the Future of Civilian Security and lessons from Ukraine. Since I am Commissioner for Defence and Space, allow me to share some thoughts als...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Kubilius at Future Forces Forum 2026 Prague, 21 October 2026 Good afternoon, It is my great pleasure to be here at this prominent Future Forces Forum. It's great to be part of this discussion on the Future of Civilian Security and lessons from Ukraine. Since I am Commissioner for Defence and Space, allow me to share some thoughts also on broader European defence and security issues, which this Forum discusses so deeply. First of all, I would like to remind, that our countries, Czechia and Lithuania, followed a very similar historical journey. We shared the good times - our journey towards a joint European home, in the European Union and NATO, which brought unprecedented freedom, prosperity and security. And we shared the bad times: nearly 90 years ago the failure of collective defence, of collective security in Europe. The betrayal of Czechoslovakia in Munich. And for us one year later: the Molotov – Ribbentrop pact. The division and occupation of Poland and the Baltics between Nazis and Soviets. Followed by war, Nazi terror and more than 40 years of communist dictatorship. In both cases big powers decided about us, without us. And in both cases also the lesson is very clear: If you don't choose peace through strength - You will get war through weakness. Now once again war has come to Europe. Once again peace in Europe is under threat. And that demands strength on our side in order to avoid the worst. 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 European defence. We have succeeded in achieving a financial big bang. 150 billion euro in SAFE loans - around 2 billion euro for Czechia. 60 billion euro for defence of Ukraine under the Ukraine support loan. Member States pledged to NATO to spend 6.8 trillion euro for defence by 2035. But Russia is not being deterred. Russia is escalating. Next year Russia will allocate 180 billion euro for its military budget, for its war against Ukraine, 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. We need to remember, that on our side, only Ukraine has a comparable battle-tested and experienced military force, with the ability to use 10 million drones per year. And Ukraine has a battle-tested and highly innovative defence industry. That is why we need to learn a lot from Ukraine, and that is why we need Ukraine in our defence family. Our greatest strength is unity. Unity of purpose. When we are talking about defence readiness, I always say there are three pillars of our defence readiness, and we need to be united around them. First: material defence readiness. 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, the European pillar of NATO. Third: Political defence readiness. Our willpower to fight, to defend, to deter. Russia with all its threats and hybrid attacks is exactly targeting the political will of our societies. These three pillars of defence readiness are all interrelated. And in building all three of them, we need to learn from Ukraine. I will discuss them in reverse order. First, our political defence readiness. That is our willingness to defend ourselves. We can call it the absolute pre-condition for the other types of defence readiness. That's why Russia is trying to undermine our willingness and our unity with threats and unprecedented hybrid attacks. We need to learn from Ukraine very painful lessons. Putin is attacking civilian targets in Kyiv, energy infrastructure, apartment buildings, commercial business, etc. in order to destroy the people's will to defend the country. The so called “Gerasimov doctrine” declares that there are no dividing lines between “occupation of the hearts and minds of the people” and attempts to occupy the territory. We see how Russia is starting to apply the same strategy against the EU and NATO Member States. Our ability to defend the hearts and minds of our citizens is as important as our capability to defend our borders. That is what we need to learn from Ukraine and that is what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed with the European counter-hybrid playbook and the European Emergency Security Protocol for defence of hearts and minds of our people against all the different Russian hybrid attacks. And civil security, the topic of this conference, is key to our defence readiness, and our ability to defend the hearts and minds of our people. Helping our citizens to be ready and not to be afraid. That is why we need to understand that defence of our power grids, railways or factories is as important as defence of our borders or of the front line. We need civil authorities, armed forces and infrastructure operators to plan and exercise together. With practical guidance for people, to manage an emergency at least for 72 hours. Because if disaster comes, or war comes, this will not stop at national borders. We can help our people also by using the full power of our European space programme - to act before, during and after disasters. Galileo, Copernicus, Govsatcom, forthcoming IRIS2 are European space programs which help during a crisis: in peace time and during the war. Success of those programs is made possible thanks to my colleagues from EUSPA, the European Agency for the Space programme, here in Prague. And I thank Czechia here for the key role you are playing as host of EUSPA. We have a lot of experience in responding to natural disasters. But Ukraine has the daily experience of protecting civilians in wartime. It's not us who can teach Ukraine about civil security. It is Ukraine who can teach us. Every day: air raid alerts. Every day: drone and missile attacks. I thank Ukrainians for being here to share with us the lessons you learned – at such a great cost. The lives of the sons and daughters of Ukraine. Help us to imagine the unimaginable. What to do if war comes. Lessons we hope we will never need. Because as I said: our number one goal is to prevent war. That's why we are also bringing more unity to our institutional defence readiness. In her State of the Union Speech Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a European Security Council - a bold idea for overcoming European status quo crisis – for achieving a “ big bang” in the development of European institutional defence readiness: “ This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council [with partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom] - a reality. The urgency is clear.” 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. We need a stronger Europe for a stronger NATO. That is why we Europeans must recognise our vital interest in fully integrating Ukrainian battle tested defence capabilities with European defence capabilities as soon as possible. We have no time to waste. Failing to pursue such integration would be a major strategic mistake. In European defence not everything is only about production and procurement of weapons and how much we invest into our defence. There are some civilian or political achievements in the European Union, which we still do not have in European defence. In defence we are very much fragmented. And that makes us weaker. We need to learn how to be ready to fight as Europe, not just as a Lego construction of 27. We need to learn how to build pan-European defence projects. Projects that no country can build alone, but that defend the entire Union. We started the development of European Defence Projects of Common Interest. Many Member States are joining forces, together with Ukraine. Czechia is taking part in four out of five approved pan European defence projects. So I thank the Czech government for this commitment. And in addition, we need to understand, that two of our greatest European achievements do not apply to Defenceon the European continent: freedom of movement and our internal market. Of course, soldiers are no ordinary passengers and weapons no ordinary goods. But there are now so many bureaucratic obstacles that it can take troops and equipment months to cross the continent. So we now have a paradoxical situation: it is easier for a Russian tourist on a Schengen visa to move through Europe, than it is for a NATO soldier. We need to radically change such a situation. Speed is essential for our deterrence. That's why we last year presented a proposal to cut red tape for military mobility. To replace a patchwork of national rules with one clear European rulebook. I hope that we shall find an agreement with the Council and European Parliament on this package before the end of the year. And our other great European achievement is the internal market. But it does not apply to defence. Here we still have 27 separate defence markets. Because defence is a national prerogative. The reasons are clear but so are the results: Massive inefficiency. With real battlefield consequences. At times the Ukrainians had to operate 14 different types of European howitzers. That can cost lives. Fragmentation means industry cannot scale. And cannot win global competition. Because it cannot benefit from the size of Europe's internal market. That's especially difficult for start ups and SMEs. Ending fragmentation could save Member States billions. If we don't act, these problems will only get worse. A more European defence market is on the top of our agenda. So, very soon we will present a defence market package. And both the European Parliament and European Council have called for action. Our goal is to create more unity in our European defence market. To mobilise the power of the single market for our defence, which will bring also many opportunities for the Czech defence industry. And will bring also jobs and growth, right here in Czechia. That also brings civil security to our society. Political defence readiness suffers in the countries which do not have economical growth. Such countries have less civilian security. So that is why we need to invest into our defence industry. It will help us to build a big European defence industry. And to have economic growth, which our societies will be able to enjoy. That will increase our power to defend and deter and preserve peace on the European continent. Our policy is production, but our purpose is peace and security of society. Also - civilian security. SPEECH/26/2229 <@rel_link@>
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