Thanks to Trump and Putin, Europe has to get up quickly. But can it catch up quickly enough?

The Luxembourg Palace in Paris Gold Leaf witnessed the countless oratory moving moments in about 200 years, in which he hosted French senators and other parliamentarians, but the moment that stands out late belongs to Claude Malhuret and his lighted US president Donald Trump.

Malhuret, a 75-year-old doctor and lawyer who once managed Médecines without Frontières, found himself in March headlines around the world Eight minutes of speech This has been translated and collected tens of millions of views on social media.

This caused the US president, calling him a “traitor” in the West and a threat to European security.

“Trump's message is that it makes no sense to be his ally, because he will not defend you,” Malhuert flourished from a decorative chamber. “He will impose higher tariffs on you than his enemies and threaten to take over your territories.”

“Europe stands alone,” he said, calling the continent to accelerate military assistance to Ukraine to help her repel Russia's invasion and quickly build European armies to compensate for Trump's lack of interest.

In weeks after giving this speech, military development and security on the continent moved at a stunning pace. And although Malhuret's voice was only one of many such arguments, said CBC News that he would comfort himself, that his words could have helped motivate the largest side program that Europe has seen for decades.

“Europeans are emerging from denial,” said CBC News in a recent interview in Luxembourg Palace.

“The message for the French Nation (it is) very simple. We will probably have to defend Ukraine ourselves. And the second message is that the Atlantic Alliance is in great danger,” he said.

At the beginning of this week, Trump – again – falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia and still insisted on President Vladimir Putin, even as the bombing of Russian Ukrainian cities increased.

First steps

While European leaders are still pressing Trump's change, they also took serious steps to use again.

The European Union says this plans To collect an immediate EUR 150 billion ($ 236 billion CDN) for collective defense. Separately, many countries have announced their own funds.

Poland He says he plans to create an army of half a million soldiers.

France He says that he intends to build a new generation of aircraft carriers and began talks about the probably extension of the nuclear umbrella over other countries.

Germany He unlocked hundreds of billions of euros to a new infrastructure, most of which can be directed towards defense.

AND Britain, Not in the European Union, but still willing to show wider leadership, increases defense expenditure to 2.5 percent of GDP, which is the greatest increase in four decades.

Large gaps

Despite the avalanche of ads, the new report emphasizes the reality of how difficult it will be to European countries to stop from American military power and technology – and do it quickly.

Report from Brussels Bruegel Think-Tank He emphasizes that there are huge gaps in the possibilities of defense production that should be overcome.

In particular, it says that Europe suffers from a shortage of advanced defense technologies.

For example, while the US has increased the mass production of the F-35 warrior from the fifth generation, European factories are still pushing the fourth generation aircraft.

He also says that national competitions weaken Europe's ability to mass production of the highest quality systems.

While the US focuses their energy on the production of one main battle tank (M1 Abrams), Europe produces seven, and each country prioritizes its own home model.

One of the authors of the report said CBC News “Guy -supply nationalism” or favoring products produced on their home markets, stops the handsome project in Europe.

“Step No. 1 is that we need to use the benefits of the scale, which has a huge European market,” said Armin Steinbach, a non-resident in Bruegel.

“This helps to increase production in a much more efficient and less expensive way.”

Steinbach's group offers a new Pan-European Defense Fund-“European Defense Mechanism”-to facilitate the joint order.

Theoretically, he says that non -European countries, including Canada, can contribute to the fund, and also use it through cooperation with potentially hundreds of billion dollars in new military projects.

“We know that Canada is a country that is also at the time of reorientation, taking into account what is happening in the US,” said Steinbach.

European defense ministers considered Bruegel's proposal last week, calling it a good starting point.

French optimism

During a recent trip to France, CBC News talked to several older European officials involved in efforts using recognition who remain optimistic that they can perform a difficult rotation in the scope of necessary defense orders.

“We want to build a European Union that is based on itself in relation to its safety,” said CBC News, former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

Attal was the prime minister for nine months from January to September 2024, before his Renaissance party lost power after President Emmanuel Macron called the election to try to repel the rapid growth of his right.

Remains a selected member of the French Parliament and there is common speculation that it may mean the presidency in 2027.

“Our vision is to invest a lot more in our national budgets in defense, buying the European and European defense industry and building a European compass regarding our defense,” he said.

Svenja Hahn, a German member of the European Parliament representing the left -wing free democratic party, said that she believes that the security crisis created by Trump and Putin would help focus his minds on the overcoming of collective challenges.

“If we do not want to be mastered by the persecutors of the world, we really have to become the third superpower (after China and the USA),” said CBC News at the Paris forum.

Difficult time

While new fighters, tanks and sophisticated rocket defense systems can take many years – even decades – in order to develop and produce, Europe can be able to move faster by increasing defense in other areas, especially drones.

“This is a huge priority,” said Rafael Loss, a member of the European Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin.

“Ukrainians show that you can have a large production base without the need for extremely extended production dates.”

He also said that the arms of most European nations are too small at the moment, but they can be strengthened by new recruitment and training relatively quickly.

Although the Bruegel report does not set a time limit for Europe to increase their own taking, the losses say that the planners probably consider several key dates.

“One of the (time) of Trump's presidents; the other is the life of Vladimir Putin,” said CBC News.

In other words, he says that there is a need to renew the army and quickly create new weapons, because Trump is still three and a half years. At the same time, there may also be Putin, who is 72 years old acceleration His ambition to enlarge Russia's territory by taking over neighboring Baltic nations for his life.

The loss says that the second great determinant of how much time he has to force is the result of the war in Ukraine.

“I think that defeating Russia in Ukraine will minimize the risk of Russian escalation against European countries.”