Europe stronger after the crisis. “It helps you wake up from lethargy”

Crises, whether political or economic, leave Europe stronger in the long term and tighten cooperation between members of the community, says the president of the Lewiatan Confederation. – Europe tends to fall asleep in simple and easy times. From the financial crisis in 2008-2009, then COVID, the energy crisis and now the war in Ukraine – such shocks help Europe wake up from lethargy. Ukraine has shown that we need to become energy independent and this is happening very quickly, just as COVID has shown that we can take out debt together, said Maciej Witucki.

Strategic autonomy

The war in Ukraine also showed that the European Union needs to build its strategic autonomy and cooperate not only to become independent from external energy sources, but also to build military strength and economic independence from, for example, China or the United States.

– This is not about cutting ourselves off completely, but about ensuring that relations between us and North America and Asia are on a relatively equal level, said Maciej Witucki.

European arms industry

The European arms industry, extremely important at a time of threat of escalation of hostilities, is dispersed and needs a strong incentive to start cooperation.

– Every country claims to have a defense industry, but then it turns out that each country produces enough tanks or planes only for a national day parade. It turns out that even such a standard item as 155 mm ammunition is not transferable from one French howitzer to a German or Polish one, said Witucki.

The need for consolidation in Europe has already been noticed and, as the president of the Lewiatan Confederation says, a slow process of consolidation of arms production has begun.

– It will be necessary to break the lobby of national industries. We see how the Polish champion defends its monopoly position, and Italian and French companies behave in a similar style – said Maciej Witucki.