Europe Must Act Now: Security and Competitiveness in the Same Fight
European lawmakers remain asleep as Europe faces two linked challenges: security pressure from Russia’s war in Ukraine and weakening competitiveness driven by high energy costs. Faster deregulation could address both by accelerating drone production, industrial cooperation with Ukraine, and economic
Kyiv Post
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Europe is facing a rare strategic opportunity: it is grappling with an economic crisis and has a ready-made solution at hand.
On the one hand, it is directly exposed to the outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine – a conflict that has already reshaped European security.
On the other hand, it is grappling with slowing growth, industrial pressure, and now higher energy costs showing little sign of easing. It is over these that big businesses in Europe are ringing the alarm as they see imminent risks of mass unemployment and long-term competitiveness.
The encouraging truth is that these two challenges are not mutually exclusive. They can be solved in tandem and addressing one can help resolve the other. If only European leaders would wake up – and now!
Unfortunately, so far, as a European chief executive told the Financial Times: “There is no sense of urgency in pursuing deregulation even as rising gas prices in Europe dent the bloc’s competitiveness compared to the US.”
And, according to the European Commission, up to 1.3 million jobs in the EU could be lost as a result of the higher energy prices.
Ukraine is on a roll and that momentum needs to be strengthened to turn it into a lasting advantage.
Ukraine is currently demonstrating something that would have seemed improbable just a couple years ago: a fast-evolving model of modern warfare driven by scale, innovation and rapid adaptation. Its long-range drone campaigns are reshaping the battlefield.
During his visit to Estonia, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine and Estonia have signed a Joint Declaration on strengthening security and defense cooperation. The document covers the exchange of military experience, defense industry cooperation, and air defense, with a separate agreement under the Drone Deal format still in the works. Zelensky framed the declaration as part of broader joint action with European partners, alongside sanctions pressure and Ukraine’s EU membership path.
Russian oil infrastructure has come under sustained pressure, with refineries disrupted, fuel depots struck, ammunition sites hit, and military logistics increasingly strained deep inside Russian territory. Strategic assets once considered safe far from the front line are now within reach.
This is not just tactical success – it is a structural shift in how the war is being fought.
But there is a hard reality embedded in this development: technological advantages in war are rarely permanent. Russia is already adjusting. It is expanding production, adapting air defenses, and learning from each wave of attacks. Any current edge, if not reinforced and scaled, will narrow over time.
That is precisely where Europe’s opportunity lies – and why timing matters.
If Ukraine’s drone capability is one of the most effective asymmetric tools currently in play, then Europe has a direct interest in scaling it now, while it still delivers disproportionate impact. That means moving beyond fragmented aid packages and toward a structured, industrial-level partnership: mass funding of drone production, joint development programs, and integrated supply chains between Ukrainian manufacturers and European industry.
This is where the conversation needs to change. This is not simply “military assistance” in the traditional sense. It is an industrial strategy disguised as defense policy.
What is being built is not just weapons capacity – it is an entire ecosystem: advanced manufacturing, electronics, AI-driven targeting systems, autonomous platforms, and dual-use technologies that will define the next generation of European industry.
And that is where Europe’s internal economic debate becomes impossible to ignore.
Across the continent, leading industrial voices are warning about stagnation risks. High energy prices continue to weigh on heavy industry, regulatory complexity slows investment, and growth remains uneven. Projections increasingly suggest that prolonged competitiveness pressures could translate into significant job losses if structural reforms do not accelerate.
At the same time, Europe has already proved it can act decisively when urgency is clear. Following the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, dependency on Russian gas reduced dramatically in a remarkably short timeframe. Supply chains were reoriented, infrastructure adapted, and political consensus – though imperfect – moved fast.
Capacity exists. The question is whether it will be used again with the same speed.
The strategic logic is straightforward: investing in Ukraine’s defense production does not only support a partner under attack – it creates demand for European components, engineering expertise, and manufacturing capacity. It anchors industrial activity inside Europe’s economic space while strengthening the continent’s security posture at the same time.
More production lines mean more skilled jobs. More R&D collaboration means more innovation. More integration with Ukraine’s defense sector means faster iteration cycles and technological leadership in an area that will matter for decades.
In other words, this is one of those rare policy areas where security policy, industrial policy and labor market policy all point in the same direction.
The alternative is less attractive: a drawn-out war where Ukraine is under-equipped, Europe continues to absorb the economic shock indirectly, and Russia slowly adapts to battlefield innovations without being forced into strategic fatigue.
The opportunity, then, is not abstract. It is time bound.
Europe has a narrow window to help turn Ukraine’s current battlefield innovation into a durable advantage – one that shapes not just the outcome of this war, but the structure of European defense and industry for years to come.
This is not about symbolism or sentiment. It is about alignment: turning what Ukraine needs militarily into what Europe needs economically, and acting on both simultaneously.
The only real question left is whether European leaders are willing to treat it as the integrated opportunity it actually is, or continue managing it as two separate crises until the window closes.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.
