EU defence ministers are meeting in County Wicklow, Ireland, on Tuesday for the first of a series of informal but high-level talks, following a summer marked by a surge in security incidents across the continent. The picturesque setting on Ireland's east coast provides an unusual backdrop for discussions on threats that extend well beyond Europe's eastern flank.
At the centre of attention is the expectation that Berlin will formally accuse Russia of being behind a suspected drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo aircraft carrying military supplies at Leipzig/Halle airport in early August. Reports indicate that an explosives-laden drone, apparently intended to detonate, was discovered near the aircraft.
In an interview with our correspondent Shona Murray, Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard delivered a stark assessment of the current threat level. "This is extremely serious. We are in the most serious security situation since the Second World War," she said. "We take the drone incidents in Leipzig extremely seriously, and we are in close contact with our German friends."
Stenergard also expressed frustration with the terminology often used to describe such actions. "I really don't like the term hybrid threat because it sounds like an environmentally friendly car when it's something completely different," she added.
The talks come amid speculation that Russia might be seeking to escalate its hybrid operations into a broader confrontation—a notion that NATO and European officials are pushing back against, as our correspondent Sasha Vakulina explains.
Pressure for Patriot systems
Ministers will also discuss the EU's military support to Ukraine, with countries that still hold significant stocks of interceptor missiles—such as Greece and Spain—expected to face pressure from the European Commission to transfer them to Kyiv, EU officials told our correspondent Angela Skujins.
One EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the issue of Madrid and Athens keeping a tight grip on their Patriot interceptors is not new. But the issue is gaining pace, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voicing louder requests for interceptors. The Patriot issue has proven to be the "debate of the summer," the diplomat said.
Later tonight, EU foreign affairs ministers will arrive for dinner before holding discussions tomorrow in an informal format known as 'Gymnich', with their Canadian, British, Norwegian and Ukrainian counterparts joining them.
Financial support under scrutiny
They will have to grapple with increasing doubts over Europe's capacity to financially support Ukraine. There is now broad consensus that the bloc's €90 billion loan to Kyiv, agreed last December and approved in April, will not be enough to cover the war-torn country's needs as Russia ramps up its offensive.
The debate over using frozen Russian assets is returning to the fore. Stockholm is leading calls for the European Commission to revisit the idea of using immobilised Russian state assets—most of which are held in the Belgium-based securities depository, Euroclear—to fund Ukraine.
EU leaders agreed in December on a €90 billion interest-free loan to Ukraine financed through joint EU borrowing in order to plug Kyiv's widening financial gap. The European Commission had first proposed channelling immobilised Russian state assets as a so-called 'reparations loan' to Kyiv, but the proposal ultimately stalled due to Belgian concerns over legal and financial risks.
Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland last week signed a letter asking the Commission to explore "new options" to tap into the funds, effectively reviving a complex debate that only recently pushed the bloc into a political showdown. Although not signatories, the Baltic states, Denmark, Finland and Germany are considered supportive of the move.
Sweden's Malmer Stenergard told Shona: "We are not providing enough support (to Ukraine) bilaterally or through the EU. And then what is left is the frozen assets." She added that she took the Belgian concerns "very seriously" and assured that Belgium would not be "left alone with the risks."
"We have to move on because this is what is fair to Ukraine. It's what is fair to the taxpayers," she explained. "And we have to find a way to make sure that Belgium feels comfortable with this. That is why we are asking the Commission (...) to present proposals that ensure that we share the risks."
Transatlantic tensions over G20
Meanwhile, the Trump administration's decision to invite Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to Monday's G20 talks in Asheville, North Carolina, has irked European leaders and revived transatlantic tensions over the US's approach towards Moscow.
Reports suggest European ministers and central bankers were kept in the dark about the US decision to invite Siluanov. Ministers also opposed appearing alongside their Russian counterpart in the traditional family photo, which was eventually taken without Siluanov.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly told the Russian minister that there would be no new deals or sanctions relief until the war in Ukraine ends, relieving European fears that the Trump administration could be looking to bring Russia back into the international financial fold.
In other news, Spanish Socialist MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar told our morning show that it's "obvious" that the mass entry of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta over the summer "couldn't have happened without some overlooking of the Moroccan authorities"—even as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez continues to avoid pointing the finger towards Rabat. "If we want to keep up our strategic association with Morocco, we need to ask Morocco to behave," he said.
Greens co-President Terry Reintke told us that the EU may have made a mistake by distancing itself from the campaign ahead of this weekend's Icelandic referendum on reviving EU accession talks. "European politicians should maybe have been more active in the debate," she said. "Looking back, I think we should have maybe taken a bigger part in this discussion."
For more on the EU's response to hybrid threats, see our analysis on EU defence ministers convene as hybrid threats from Russia intensify. On the Patriot issue, read EU presses Greece and Spain to send Patriot interceptors to Ukraine. And for the latest on frozen assets, check four EU states revive push to tap frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
