The plan would coordinate Europe’s response to sabotage, cyberattacks and other hybrid threats. “Europe has to adapt or die,” TVP World’s chief international correspondent Alex Cadier said after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her annual State of the Union address to call for a more self-reliant Europe able to respond to security threats without depending excessively on Washington. Cadier told TVP World’s News in Depth program that the speech put “strategic autonomy” at the center of the EU agenda, from defense and trade to technology and critical raw materials. Europe’s own security response Von der Leyen proposed an “Emergency Security Protocol,” modeled on NATO’s Article 4, under which an EU member facing a serious hybrid threat could trigger consultations among all 27 countries. She also proposed a European Security Council involving partners including Canada, the UK, Norway and Ukraine. Cadier said the aim was not to replace NATO, but to give Europe a mechanism for responding collectively to sabotage, cyberattacks, arson and drone incursions without waiting for a wider transatlantic response. The proposal comes after a string of suspected Russian-linked hybrid incidents across Europe, including an attempted explosive-drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport. TVP World has previously examined how such operations are testing the threshold between hostile activity and open aggression. Canada and Ukraine Von der Leyen also proposed opening the door for Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member,” with deeper cooperation in defense, technology, energy and critical minerals. Cadier said the move reflected an effort by both Brussels and Ottawa to reduce strategic dependencies and build closer ties among like-minded partners. On Ukraine, von der Leyen said unspent funds under the EU’s SAFE defense program would be invested in joint European-Ukrainian defense projects and called for the joint development of an affordable, modular missile-defense system. Cadier said closer integration would combine Ukraine’s battlefield experience with Europe’s growing industrial capacity, while warning that the proposals remain politically ambitious and will require further negotiations before they can become reality.
