The starting point of the White Paper on Defence, according to circulating drafts, is the desire to strengthen the EU's strategic autonomy in the defence sector, after decades of underinvestment that have reduced the Union's capabilities and fragmented the defence industrial base, compounded by the effort to support Ukraine, which has further depleted the arsenals of member states.
In the "White Paper on the Future of European Defence" the Commission identifies the massive presence of US forces in Europe and the availability of US strategic enablers as the cause of an excessive dependence on US protection that has compromised Europe's ability to defend itself and its autonomy to act in its neighborhood. This dependence is something Brussels now intends to overcome, especially in light of the different approach of the United States, ready to limit, if not completely cease, the availability of such enablers.
