The European Union needs to strengthen its defence autonomy from NATO not to be dependent on changes in the United States, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in an interview with Politico.
Metsola's statement came as a comment on former US President Donald Trump's remarks about NATO. According to her, this shows the need to allocate more funds to the military industry in order not to depend on changes in US foreign policy.
Europe needs to spend more on defence to implement its strategic autonomy, the politician said. At the same time, the European defence alliance needs to complement NATO rather than be a competition to it, she added.
Earlier, Deputy President of the European Parliament Katharina Barley proposed the creation of EU's nuclear arms programme. Building the unified European army will take time, but the idea must be implemented as soon as possible, she said.