The Shadow War, Newsletter

Key diary dates

• Monday 29 September: EU Competitiveness Council to discuss Multiannual Financial Framework.
• Tuesday 1 October: Informal meeting of EU heads of state in Copenhagen.
• Wednesday 2 October: Meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen.

In spotlight

When EU leaders meet to discuss defence and drone incursions for an informal summit in Copenhagen this week, the urgency of the discussion will be reflected in the level of security.

Drones were again observed at several military facilities over the weekend in Denmark following multiple reports of drone sightings last week that temporarily forced Danish airports to shut down.

On Sunday afternoon, the Danish defence ministry announced that the German air defence frigate, FSG Hamburg, had arrived in Copenhagen.

Germany has also said its armed forces will provide military support for the summit through “Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

capabilities,” also known as C-sUAS, which are detection systems that use radar, optical and acoustics technologies. Sweden had already announced it would "lend Denmark a military anti-drone capability”. 

It's not yet clear who is behind the drone activity, though Denmark’s prime minister and NATO’s secretary-general said last week that Russian involvement couldn’t be ruled out.

Last week the EU formally launched an initiative to establish a drone wall along the bloc's eastern flank amid increasing violations of airspace at the hands of Russia. This drone wall initiative will feature high on the summit agenda, but it's unclear how long it will take for the project to be realised on the ground.

How the EU drone wall fits in with NATO’s plans will be a key question. The EU's attempts to forge European Defence Union have played second fiddle to the alliance.

But the recent drone incursions and have pushed the EU further into the defence domain, just as NATO itself attempts to get to grip with airspace violations along its eastern flank.

NATO training and defence operations are taking on a real-time urgency as Euronews reported from recent annual training in Portugal, where defence tech companies were being brought to the battlefield – at least for training, in an attempt to beef up the alliance’s drone capabilities.

Policy newsmakers

Deforestation rule delay, again

The Commission announced a second delay to implementation of EU deforestation rules last week, citing technical issues in the IT system dealing with the submission of due diligence statements by affected businesses. German lawmaker Peter Liese (pictured, left), the EPP group’s spokesman on environment said that the goal of stopping global deforestation remains right, but a “bureaucratic monster weakens the acceptance of European environmental policy.” French lawmaker Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe - pictured right) said the Commission’s decision was “deplorable” since the EU executive had had time enough to adjust since the first delay.

Policy Poll

Data brief