Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago

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In her political guidelines presented on 18 July 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen identified defence as a priority. She committed that the new Commission would present a white paper on the future of European defence within the first 100 days of taking office. The white paper is expected to predominantly address defence sector capability issues, industrial competitiveness and investment needs.

Join us as we explore how Europe’s defence strategy is taking shape to address the challenges of a shifting geopolitical landscape, and how the European Parliament will play an important role to ensure its success.

📖 Dig deeper into our publication about the white paper on the future of European defence:
https://europa.eu/!pp7WMY

📺 Watch the first two episodes of our series focusing on:
• How to reinforce Europe's defence industry: youtube.com/watch?v=kRUWi6n61GQ&t=6s
• How to improve the quality of European defence spending: youtube.com/watch?v=I3AcHD-Qyf8


▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Introduction
01:10 What is a white paper on defence and why is it important?
03:15 Will this white paper be biding?
04:33 What can we expect to find in this white paper?
08:37 How difficult will it be for Member States to agree?
11:14 Will the EU leaders discuss the white paper or will they feed into it?
13:06 What are the links to other policy fields?
16:30 How will the European Parliament address the upcoming white paper?
19:45 Outro