Overview

• Speaking at a security forum in Warsaw on Sept. 29, Dalia Grybauskaitė said the European Commission hopes to complete the project within a year, a goal she doubts due to EU bureaucracy from her experience as a former commissioner.
• She criticized Europe’s current approach as cost-inefficient, arguing that cheap drones are being countered with fighter jets or other expensive assets.
• Reuters reported on Sept. 18 that EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius would discuss creating a “drone wall” along the bloc’s eastern frontier with EU military leaders.
• Politico, cited by Slovakia’s Pravda, reported that seven EU countries, Ukraine and the European Commission planned talks to accelerate the initiative.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said there is still no common understanding of the project’s parameters and cast the debate as a push to justify increased militarization.