Strasbourg, 11 March 2025
Member of the European Parliament and member of the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) Željana Zovko made a speech at the plenary session on European security architecture.
Zovko pointed out the encouraging sign of the proposal endorsed by the European Council on 6 March as it will strengthen European defence. However, she also highlighted that this EU’s waking up should not make us forget that the American umbrella is vital for us.
She underlined that the strengthening of the EU’s defence must go hand in hand with the strengthening of our relations with our allies, including with the US. Besides the fact that the current EU measures will only produce effects in at least 4 years, the EU has to bear in mind that the US and Russia together account for 85% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.
Zovko also stressed that the EU strongly needs American intelligence, highlighting that some member states even relying entirely on NATO and that a relative autonomy from American intelligence would take years.
For all these reasons, Zovko emphasised the EU must intensify its diplomatic efforts to find common ground with its US ally. She insisted that the EU defence and strengthening of the European pillar of NATO can become robust within some years but it will become much stronger with cooperation with the US.
“The American umbrella is vital for us as we still need a rainy day friend”.
Let us remind that Ms Zovko was already a member of the SEDE Committee in the ninth parliamentary term and as such actively worked on the strengthening of the European pillar of NATO. As part of her work in SEDE, Ms Zovko has always being strongly committed to preserving the security and stability of Southeast Europe and the Sahel region. Zovko is also a strong advocate of EU cooperation with Western Balkan countries in the area of defence industries.