Overview
- The planned expert group, scheduled for Monday, was put on hold after last-minute objections first from Italy and later from France and Germany.
- Kaja Kallas had intended the body to include senior political and military figures and representatives from the UK and Ukraine to produce concrete recommendations to close gaps in Europe’s conventional forces.
- Several capitals opposed the initiative because they saw it as an intrusion on national defence competences, with Germany preferring to rely on NATO planning processes.
- EU officials said the underlying diagnosis has not changed and that Brussels will now explore alternative cooperation mechanisms while the setback weakens Kallas as calls grow to reform the EU’s External Action Service.
- The move comes against a security backdrop of higher European defence spending since 2022 and pressure from partners to accelerate capability upgrades, which could affect procurement timetables and troop readiness across member states.