Trend Europe takes on greater defence responsibility within NATO

Summary

European defence spending and industrial capacity are expanding under the combined pressure of a worse security environment since Russia's invasion, years of under-investment and weak production capacity, and US demands and doubts over its long-term commitment. The report reads this not as immediate security independence from the United States or a European system replacing NATO, but as a larger European share of capability and responsibility within the alliance. The Commission's defence White Paper itself calls NATO central to collective defence while urging Europe to carry more of the burden of its own defence. EU instruments such as ReArm Europe and Readiness 2030 and NATO's Hague investment target began on separate institutional tracks but are increasingly tied together around higher national spending and more defence-industrial output. Whether this becomes real capability depends on fiscal sustainability, industrial capacity, joint procurement and market integration, and on how US-Europe security and industrial cooperation is managed.