European Commission confirms abandonment of plans to create EU High-Level Group on Defense

The European Commission (EC) has confirmed the abandonment of plans to create an EU High-Level Group on Defense, which EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had been trying to form and whose first meeting was canceled today.

This was stated by EC representative Christian Wigand.

"This meeting was scheduled for today. But after consultations with the member states, the High Representative (head of the EU diplomatic service Kaja Kallas) decided not to continue this work," he said at a briefing in Brussels. According to Wigand, cooperation with EU countries on defense will be carried out "in other formats."

Wigand and the head of the European Commission's press service, Paula Pinho, declined to comment on the reasons for this decision, recommending that journalists turn to the EU countries that opposed the initiative.
Earlier, the European publication Politico and the Euractiv portal reported that the EU diplomatic service abandoned this project under pressure from France, Germany and Italy, which believed that such a group within the EU diplomatic service would duplicate the powers of the European Commission, represented by European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius, which would lead to an intensified conflict of powers in Brussels between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas.

Source: TASS