The European Union’s former foreign affairs chief has warned that war is “a possible reality” on the bloc’s borders and called on member states to build their independence from the United States.
Josep Borrell, who served as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy until 2024, made the remarks on June 11 at the Trobada Empresarial al Pirineu, a business gathering in La Seu d’Urgell, Lleida province, northeast Spain.
“War is a possible reality, it is on our border and there are people carrying it out, and it is causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, and it may not stop there,” said Borrell, now president of the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) think tank.
He was referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022. Borrell argued that had the EU supplied fighter jets to Kyiv from the outset, the course of the war might have differed, though member states could not risk the conflict becoming their own.
The former diplomat set out what he described as four shifts in the global order. Alongside the return of war to European soil, he cited the rise of China as a major power, the economic, political and energy vulnerability of the Middle East, and a growing distance from Washington.
Borrell urged the EU to cut its reliance on the US, particularly in technology and energy, where he said dependence ran high. The answer, he maintained, lay neither in returning to Russian supplies nor in drawing closer to China, but in developing Europe’s own capabilities.
On the Spanish economy, he said growth was holding up, helped by energy prices lower than elsewhere in Europe and by the arrival of migrant labour. Even so, he cautioned that a weakening Europe would eventually take its toll on Spain.
Among the other challenges facing the bloc, Borrell listed an ageing population, migration, Chinese trade pressure and defence spending. He described the 5 per cent of output demanded by US President Donald Trump as excessive, while warning that 2 per cent was too little for Europe as a whole.
Borrell said there was no magic wand, pointing to China’s 50-year rise as proof that results required resources and clear goals.
