Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the Atlantic Bridge and former German Deputy Chancellor, says that new collective EU borrowing for defence projects is unavoidable and urges Germany to give direct backing to France’s and Poland’s military efforts.
He warned that Germany can no longer play “fiscal Taliban” on the continent: while it always asserts that defence spending belongs to national budgets, much of the cost may eventually have to be financed through debt. Gabriel agreed with the Draghi report that the European Union must rightly raise common debt to fund its defence. That strategy will be expensive and risky, he said, but the danger posed by Russian troops on the Polish border “is a greater risk and, quite frankly, a greater cost”. “The urgency grows every month” he added, “should we wait until the first drone flies over Berlin?”
Gabriel suggested that Germany put together a joint defence budget for France and Poland and finance it with Germany’s AAA credit rating. “That would relieve the French purse and prove that the German‑French friendship is truly valuable” he argued, criticising the current approach of merely calling for action while watching France lag in real time.
Looking to Poland, he noted that the country already earmarks 3.5 % of its GDP for defence. He proposed diverting 0.5 % of that into the existing NATO funds to strengthen the eastern flank, urging policymakers to turn rhetoric into tangible action.
On calls for a European nuclear weapon, Gabriel was sharply critical: the right thing done at the wrong time is usually wrong. If a nation cannot defend itself conventionally, it should not pursue nuclear ambitions. He expressed doubts that a U.S. president would launch nuclear missiles if Russia attacked the Baltics, insisting that the answer lies in building conventional forces strong enough to deter Putin before he even considers striking.