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Europe faces its most dangerous security environment in decades. With intelligence assessments suggesting that Russia could test NATO’s defences within the coming years, how can Europe build a credible defence posture in an era of reduced US engagement? Join our discussion on the upcoming Chaillot Paper 'Defending Europe, Deterring Russia: Resources, Readiness and Resolve'.

Speaking to Al Jazeera about the partial collapse of the FCAS project, Giuseppe Spatafora argued it highlights the limitation of Europe's defence industrial landscape, where national needs sometimes clash with the broader goal of defence integration.

Discussing Putin's options in Ukraine with Mexican newspaper El Universal, Ondřej Ditrych argues that the situation may be reaching a point where Putin will have to choose between holding on as best he can or escalating the conflict, a scenario for which NATO's European partners must be prepared (in Spanish). "The Russian economy has not yet collapsed, nor has its military campaign against Ukraine," noted Ondrej.

Luigi Scazzieri and Giuseppe Spatafora's Commentary, 'Assessing the damage: What the Iran war really means for Europe’s defence', was highlighted in a Deutsche Welle article (in Croatian). The article highlights how the conflict in the Middle East and growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific are prompting Washington to prioritise redirecting resources to those theatres and replenishing its own arsenals, rather than meeting the defence needs of European allies and Ukraine.

Discussing European rearmament, Giuseppe Spatafora told O Globo (in Portuguese) that Europe's great dilemma today is how to produce more with less. "Producing more means rebuilding industrial capacities that we haven't seen since the Cold War. The 'less' reflects a new reality: even if the US wants to continue supporting its allies, there are physical limits to its production capacity," he noted.

The Trump administration has outlined a plan detailing the extent to which it intends to reduce the US's commitment to NATO. Speaking to the New York Times about the proposed changes, Giuseppe Spatafora noted that "while each of these cuts can be managed individually, together they represent a significant posture change and pose challenges to European deterrence readiness across the spectrum."

The EU's €90 billion loan to Ukraine is ready to roll out but how will it be spent? Luigi Scazzieri told Euronews that while some Member States pushed to scale up production in Europe, arguing that orders must be sent to European firms, others called for more flexibility. "In the end, the agreement has been engineered in order to satisfy the bloc as a whole."

The debate about how Europeans organise their defence has been going on for years and often feels like a repetition of moves. That is, until Donald Trump came along and cast doubt on the US commitment to NATO’s Article 5, and accused European allies of freeloading. At NATO, they claim that last year’s summit in The Hague solved the problem, because Europeans agreed to spend 5% of their own GDP on defence. But the cracks in the transatlantic relationship are real. The mistrust is equally so.

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Last week, the Western Balkans moved to the centre of the EU’s political agenda. European Council President António Costa visited Sarajevo, Tirana, Skopje, Pristina and Belgrade, before attending the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Tivat, Montenegro, on 5 June. Joined by Commission President von der Leyen, Costa arrived with a familiar message: the Western Balkans remain firmly anchored in the European future.