BRUSSELS. May 29 (Interfax) - The European Union has begun analyzing the long-term lessons for EU defense that can be drawn from the military conflict in Ukraine.
"Europeans have to understand the fundamentally changed security landscape and new threats we face, not just on our eastern flank, and draw the right conclusions regarding the military assets we need," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a blog post on Monday.
It is clear that the return of high-intensity military conflict to Europe "requires a change of mindset," Borrell said.
It is not enough to simply ramp up defense spending, he said. Rather, the EU "must above all increase resources in a more coordinated way. Among member states and in coherence with NATO," he added.
"We should further invest in existing or new capabilities to ensure command and control systems that allow rapidly assessing the situation and reacting to it," Borrell said.
Noting the role of advanced military technologies that the EU should continue to prioritize, Borrell also emphasized the importance of quantity, with shortages having been present in military support for Ukraine.
Developments in Ukraine have shown that "high-intensity large-scale protracted operations entail an extremely high rate of equipment loss and must be therefore backed up by large stockpiles," he said.
The ongoing conflict "has once again demonstrated the importance of sustainable, flexible and effective logistics - from supplying frontline troops or providing medical support to rapidly repairing or modifying systems and equipment," he said.
Flaws in the current state of the European defense industry have been exposed as well, Borrell said.
"Frankly, today our defense industry lacks critical mass and reactivity, with long lead times that limit our ability to ramp up production," he said.
"We need also to tackle the excessive dependency on external suppliers to enhance this security of supply," Borrell said with respect to an obvious shortcoming brought to light during the conflict.
However, Borrell said he did not mean total autonomy or working separately when he called for strengthening Europe's defense capabilities.
"I remain convinced that a joint and coordinated EU approach is the best way to go to achieve more effective, efficient and interoperable military capabilities coherent with NATO," he said.
Hopefully, the analysis of these lessons that was initiated by the European Defense Agency's Steering Board last week will contribute to a revision of the EU Capability Development Priorities later this year, Borrell said.