'We have to close defence gaps urgently': EU Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chief McAllister

We sit down with David McAllister, the chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He talks to us about the security threats facing Europe, and what defence gaps the EU urgently needs to close. For McAllister, the EU is "not at war with the Russian Federation, but we are no longer at peace with Russia". He also believes that the EU is not, as yet, capable of making sovereign decisions in certain areas of defence "because we are too dependent on US capabilities."

Asked about the worsening security situation that Europe faces, McAllister says: "We need to establish a fully fledged European defence by the end of this decade. We need to be able to defend ourselves against all the imminent threats we are facing. And that means spending more, but also spending more effectively, because it is taxpayers' money that we are spending in large numbers. There are certain military capabilities that we don't have in Europe, for the time being. There are fields in which we have to move ahead. I'm talking about ammunition and anti-drone systems. I'm talking about satellite intelligence. I'm talking about air-to-air refuelling. I'm talking about air defence in general. These are fields where we are not in a situation to take sovereign decisions because we are too dependent on US capabilities. We have to close these gaps urgently."

Speaking of threats, McAllister asserts that "we are not at war with the Russian Federation, but we are longer at peace with Russia. We have every day, every week, violations of our airspace, attacks on our critical infrastructure, cyberattacks. That is also why it was so positive that the Federal Republic of Germany got the immediate solidarity of all 26 other member states (after the drone attack on Leipzig airport, attributed to Russian special services). An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And that's why it's correct to sanction the Russian Federation, to further sanction individuals, but also to come up with new additional ideas for how we can better protect our critical infrastructure."

We ask about German Chancellor Friedrich Merz leading the charge to secure hundreds of billions of euros in cuts from the proposed EU budget, also known as the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF.  Would Merz's proposal not hurt cohesion, regional development and social spending that EU member states actually benefit from? 

"We are now entering crunch time, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us," McAllister concedes. "There will be controversial debates, but I'm very sure that in the end, as always, there will be a last-minute solution. If you look back over the last 10, 15, 20 years, there have always been heated discussions about the size and the dimension of the MFF and who will pay how much and for what. [EU Council President] Antonio Costa has been clear. He wants an agreement on the next MFF, starting on the 1st of January in 2028. I would welcome that because we need the year 2027 for the necessary legislative work and so that everyone who receives EU money has clarity and can plan better for the years 2028 to 2034."

In Germany, the far-right AfD party surged in recent regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. What are the implications for conservatives, for Christian Democrats and for the European People's Party? 

"We have different political conditions in the 27 member states, and we have different strategies," McAllister says. "I can only say, as a German Christian Democrat, our strategy towards the AfD is that if we are convinced of something and we propose legislation, and by chance the AfD supports it, then we accept this. But they are our policies. We never support proposals coming from the AfD. We never actively engage with the AfD. We are strictly against this. Why? Because the AfD is questioning the fundamentals of the Federal Republic of Germany and also of the European Union. They are against the EU. They are against the euro. They are against NATO. They are pro-Putin and they are following a right-wing populist radical course. And that is not where the EPP should be. We are the party of common sense and that is in the centre."

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats, Paul Guianvarc'h, Agnès Le Cossec and Florine Hausfater