Von der Leyen proposes European Security Council and Article 4 analogue, citing Russian hybrid attacks
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her annual State of the European Union address on 16 September to propose creating a European Security Council with like-minded partners including Ukraine, and to announce a new European Security Strategy with an "Emergency Security Protocol" modelled on NATO Article 4. She framed both proposals as a response to intensifying Russian hybrid attacks on EU member states and to weakening transatlantic ties under the Trump administration.
Key points
- Von der Leyen proposed a European Security Council that would include Ukraine, the UK, Norway, Canada and other like-minded partners.
- She will present a new European Security Strategy jointly with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, intended to complement NATO Article 4.
- The proposed "Emergency Security Protocol" would let any one EU member state convene all member states to coordinate a response to threats below the threshold of armed aggression.
- Von der Leyen cited incidents in Denmark, Lithuania and Poland that week as evidence of escalating Russian hybrid activity on European soil.
- For Ukraine, she announced plans to procure American Patriot missiles and build a joint EU air-defence system based on the "Freya" project.
- She also proposed a European Strategic Capabilities Instrument aligned with NATO for capabilities such as air-to-air refuelling and air defence, and making Canada an associate EU member.
- EPP group leader Manfred Weber backed the call, describing fragmented European defence spending as "27 bonsai armies" and urging joint command structures, drones and satellites.
Why it matters
Von der Leyen's package represents the most concrete institutional step the EU has proposed in response to a year of Russian hybrid operations across the continent, from drone incursions and sabotage to airspace violations. By pairing a leaders-level European Security Council with an Article-4-style rapid-consultation mechanism, the Commission is signalling it wants a security architecture that can act when NATO hesitates. Placing Ukraine inside the proposed council, and tying it to specific deliverables such as Patriot interceptors and the "Freya" air-defence project, gives Kyiv a formal European foothold beyond bilateral support and links Ukraine's war directly to the EU's own threat picture.
What happened
Speaking in Strasbourg to the European Parliament on 16 September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out a new EU security agenda in response to what she described as a step-change in Russian hybrid operations against Europe. She proposed a European Security Council bringing together EU leaders with partners including Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada, and said she would work with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas to present a new European Security Strategy.
The core of the proposal is an "Emergency Security Protocol" — a European analogue of NATO Article 4 — under which any single member state could convene all others in order to coordinate a response, deter further escalation and minimise the consequences of incidents below the threshold of armed aggression. Von der Leyen said cyberattacks, sabotage, arson and drone incursions were intensifying daily and becoming "less hybrid," and cited incidents of the previous week in Denmark, Lithuania and Poland as evidence of attacks by Russian operatives using military-grade equipment on EU soil.
She framed the package as a response not only to Russian activity but to perceived US unreliability, noting that President Donald Trump had earlier threatened to annex Greenland and was reviewing the size and deployment of American troops in Europe, and that NATO had been hesitant to act more decisively for fear of provoking war with Russia.
For Ukraine specifically, she announced plans to procure American Patriot interceptor missiles and to create a joint EU air-defence system built around the "Freya" project. She also unveiled a new European Strategic Capabilities Instrument aligned with NATO for capabilities such as air-to-air refuelling and air defence, and proposed making Canada an associate member of the EU.
Manfred Weber, who leads the European People's Party faction in the European Parliament, backed the call in the ensuing debate, warning of the danger posed by Vladimir Putin, describing fragmented national defence budgets as "27 bonsai armies," and urging a single European arms market with shared command structures, European drones and satellites.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All the sources covering the speech are Ukrainian outlets, and their coverage centres on what the proposals mean for Kyiv. They highlight Ukraine's expected inclusion in the proposed European Security Council alongside the UK, Norway, Canada and others, and they treat the Patriot interceptor and "Freya" air-defence announcements as concrete deliverables rather than rhetorical gestures. Ukrainian coverage foregrounds a "response to Putin and Trump" reading of the speech and quotes Manfred Weber's "27 bonsai armies" line as political backing from the EPP for a more integrated European defence posture that includes Ukraine.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on who said the fall of a Russian drone on a residential building in Galați, Romania, met the criteria for invoking NATO Article 4. Most outlets attribute that statement to Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu; one source attributes it to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Sybiha.
Background
NATO Article 4 lets any ally request formal consultations when it feels its territorial integrity is threatened, and is generally treated as a step short of Article 5 collective defence. The idea of a European Security Council has been around since the 1980s and resurfaced after the 2003 Iraq-war split in the EU; in 2017 then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to revive it but it stalled because of British reluctance.
Several incidents of the previous weeks formed the immediate context for von der Leyen's speech. On 3 September the head of counterintelligence at the Danish Security Service, Emil Grøsholm, said intelligence had uncovered Russian sabotage planning against Danish defence-industry targets. On 14 September a Danish military helicopter was fired on with signal flares from a Russian frigate. On 15 September a Russian drone crashed in Lithuania, shot down by Italian fighters based at Šiauliai over the Kaišiadorys district near the Kruonis pumped-storage plant, and a drone appeared near a Ukrainian aircraft in Leipzig. Germany's CDU/CSU and Romania's Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu had separately called for invoking NATO Article 4 in response to these incidents before von der Leyen spoke.