European Defence Requires Strategic Mindset Shift Beyond Industrial Ramp-Up (visegradinsight.eu)

• EU Commissioner Kubilius calls for three 'big bangs' in European defence: financial, industrial, and intellectual.
• The 150-billion-euro SAFE instrument and 100-day factory permits address the first two, but the intellectual shift remains absent.
• Russia produced 7 million artillery shells in 2025, 17 times its 2021 output; European production is about half that rate.
• Poland received 43.7 billion euros from SAFE, the largest national share; eastern flank states combined received about half.
• 58% of Europeans doubt their country's self-defence capability, but many support European defence over purely national or NATO alternatives.
• The article argues that civil society involvement, as seen in Ukraine's defence innovation, is critical for strategic readiness.

"Ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius argues that Europe needs an 'intellectual big bang' alongside financial and industrial ones. While the EU has launched the 150-billion-euro SAFE loan instrument and fast-tracked factory permits, the article contends that political will, civil society involvement, and strategic imagination are lacking. Russian shell production in 2025 reached 7 million, far outpacing European output. Public opinion polls show willingness to defend but doubts about national capabilities. The piece calls for a European Defence Union with whole-of-society buy-in."