EU ‘drone wall’ summit was ‘talking shop’ – Politico

Western leaders spoke for hours but little substance emerged from the meeting in Copenhagen, the outlet has reported

The much-hyped EU summit on creating a “drone wall” to counter potential Russian incursions ended up being a “talking shop,” with no serious commitments or decisions made, Politico reported on Thursday, citing officials.

Western officials in recent weeks have reported numerous sightings of unidentified drones violating EU airspace, with concerns they could be used for strikes on critical infrastructure, reconnaissance, or air traffic disruptions. Some media outlets and officials speculated the flights could be orchestrated by Moscow. Russia has denied violating EU airspace.

The incidents spurred EU leaders to gather for a summit in Copenhagen to discuss the creation of a “drone wall” – a bloc-wide framework capable of detecting and neutralizing unauthorized UAVs. However, despite the urgency, the summit “descended into [a] familiar stalemate,” Politico reported.

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The scheduled two hours on defense ran twice as long, but that was “not indicative of a breakthrough,” the report said. According to three Politico sources, all the assembled leaders insisted on speaking, often going beyond prepared remarks.

While EU leaders essentially agreed that they are in a state of conflict with Russia and it should be contained, “little of substance emerged.” In addition to discussions on drones, talks also focused on using €140 billion ($151 billion) of Russian assets frozen in the EU to support Kiev, and changing EU rules to advance Ukraine’s membership application despite Hungary’s objections.

Politico reported that in practice, there was little progress on any of these issues. A second part of the agenda focusing on Ukraine was also reportedly delayed and squeezed into just one final hour.

The outlet added that it is unclear whether any of the plans will be ready to sign off when EU leaders next meet in Brussels at the end of October.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has criticized the concept of a drone wall. “Building walls is always bad, as history shows. And it is very sad that this militarist and confrontational policy of Ukraine may now potentially materialize in the creation of new dividing walls,” he said.