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Europe’s biggest debates on The Ring - EU’s security… at what cost?
As parliamentary activity pauses for the summer recess, we look back at some of the debates of the season. This special edition revisits some of the most pressing questions facing the EU: how should Europe defend itself in an unstable world, and how should it respond to conflicts beyond its borders?
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/29/europes-biggest-debates-on-the-ring-eus-security-at-what-cost
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
As parliamentary activity pauses for the summer recess, we look back at some of the debates of the season. This special edition revisits some of the most pressing questions facing the EU: how should Europe defend itself in an unstable world, and how should it respond to conflicts beyond its borders?
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/29/europes-biggest-debates-on-the-ring-eus-security-at-what-cost
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to this summer special edition of The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show.
00:14I'm Maeve McMahan.
00:15On The Ring, members of the European Parliament go face-to-face on some of the most pressing issues of
00:21our time.
00:22As they take a break from the city for the summer recess, we're playing you some of the highlights of
00:26the season.
00:27With the war in Ukraine featuring heavy and the EU and EU member states investing billions in defence,
00:34the big question that we put to members of the European Parliament is how much should we spend on defence
00:39and who should foot the bill?
00:41To set the scene, we can take a look at an excerpt of this edition between Rio Terras, a former
00:47army general from Estonia,
00:49and Martin Shurden, a left MEP from Germany.
00:55I think we are derailing the discussion here.
00:58It's not about to spend money on healthcare systems or defence.
01:03It's about defending Europe because we see that an aggressive Russia is willing and able to use conventional military weapons
01:11against countries.
01:12And Putin has very often declared that he wants to rearrange the security system in Europe.
01:18And if we are not ready, if we don't fulfil our own taken tasks, then we are not able to
01:24defend Europe as a whole and separate countries of it.
01:28And Martin Shurden, that is a fair point, what Rio Terras makes there.
01:31Because just think of Brussels just the other day.
01:33The airport was shut down for 30 minutes because of drone incursions, allegedly Russian drone incursions,
01:39buzzing over Dool, the nuclear plant, right by the port of Antwerp.
01:43Brussels had to call the UK in order to come and help, but wasn't able to defend itself in this
01:47situation.
01:47Yeah, exactly.
01:48That was supposedly a Russian drone.
01:50We don't know that yet.
01:51Well, I'm not defending Russia here.
01:52Maybe it was Russia.
01:53Maybe it was the third country.
01:54Maybe it was a private here.
01:55Who knows?
01:56But obviously, Europe is tested also in its military capabilities.
02:01So, of course, we need to do something in order to discuss how to defend the European Union,
02:06how to defend the member states in case there would be a violation of international law,
02:10meaning an attack against one of the member states.
02:13This is not the case so far, so we can't take time, but just a little bit,
02:16to discuss how to spend wisely the money that we have at our hands into defense.
02:22And a new security order does not only depend on defense capabilities,
02:26it also depends on how we implement international law, how we strengthen international organizations.
02:32And this is something that I'm really missing, especially in the discussion of the conservatives.
02:40How much to spend and where to spend it?
02:43Money, of course, one of the major points of discussion on that episode of The Ring.
02:48Defense came up in another fascinating, lively debate on The Ring that we had between the Austrian MEP
02:53from the European People's Party, Lucas Mandel, and the Belgian MEP from the left, Marc Buttenga.
02:58Take a look.
03:02First of all, I don't think the massive increase is justified.
03:05Let's say this first.
03:06Secondly, I think it actually will weaken Europe on the long term as well,
03:10because contrary to what you're saying, it is not a good idea for our industry.
03:14You know, we have, you speak about jobs.
03:16Basically, the defense industry yields less jobs for money invested than other sectors do.
03:21You will not save the steel industry with militarization.
03:24You know, producing 1,000 tanks, it's about three days of production of a steel factory.
03:29So you can see that you're actually weakening also.
03:32There's a negative multiplier effect that might be applied to other industries.
03:36So you're weakening structurally the industrial base of Europe by saying we put more defense,
03:41but we will lose other sectors.
03:42Look at the automobile sector.
03:44And secondly, indeed, what is the threat that justifies, you know, this massive?
03:48Why, for example, if I hear the German chancellor, right,
03:52saying I want to have the biggest army in Europe.
03:55Why do you want the biggest army in Europe?
03:57Is that your threat assessment?
03:58That the problem is you don't have the biggest army in Europe?
04:01We need to be very clear.
04:02There are threats, you know, and one of the threats is the arms race.
04:05One of the threats is nuclear war.
04:07Let's be very clear.
04:08This is very clear.
04:09How do you deal with that?
04:11During the Cold War, we knew disarmament, transparency, limitations on arms control systems.
04:18All of these things we knew during the Cold War with the Soviet Union that was vastly more powerful
04:23and vastly more ideological than Putin or Putin's Russia will ever be.
04:27Okay.
04:28Do you hear this?
04:29In the Cold War, freedom won against dictatorship.
04:32And this was, of course, due to deterrence.
04:36And deterrence is what is needed.
04:37Deterrence will also save us.
04:39And deterrence is only possible if we can take care of ourselves.
04:41And the security sector and industries is not isolated from other sectors.
04:46We have to understand Europe.
04:48And I really care for Europe's prosperity, for jobs on our continent and for the future of the generations ahead.
04:54Europe became a continent of consumption.
04:57We have been consuming over decades innovation from America, production from China and other parts of Asia,
05:04also innovation from China in the meantime.
05:06So we need innovation on European soil.
05:08We also need production on European soil.
05:11When you talk about the automotive sector, there are not many sectors as much connected to the security sector as
05:16this one.
05:17So security and economy has to be taken serious.
05:21That's why I'm also saying let's put first things first.
05:25This must be the priority.
05:29Now it's time for our viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament Chamber,
05:34where members ask each other questions.
05:36And sometimes it can get heated.
05:38So let's get started.
05:41Lukas Madl, I'm going to ask you to ask the first question to Mark.
05:46Well, Mark Potenga, as a colleague in the European Parliament,
05:49how can we make sure that we establish more freedom for the Europeans to the inside and more strength to
05:55the outside?
05:56This is the overall issue of our time.
05:57I would say Europe needs more strength for its civilization, for its reliability, the diplomatic approach that you obviously do
06:05not see from the European side,
06:06while Europe is the strongest diplomatic power given the geopolitical situation today.
06:12So how can we create more strength to the outside and how can we establish more freedom to the inside
06:16for our citizens?
06:17I think that's a very interesting question coming from the center right, who's governing in many governments in Europe and
06:23who's basically limiting the right to protest,
06:26who's limiting the right to strike, who's limiting basically fundamental freedoms of Europeans.
06:31And so I would say, first thing, please tell the governments of your political group, of your political party, to
06:38stop limiting the fundamental freedoms of Europeans.
06:42And secondly, towards the outside, I need, we need, I think, to rebuild European credibility.
06:48And how do we do that?
06:50We do that by stopping the double standards, by no longer saying international law is important for us in Ukraine,
06:56but in Palestine, we don't care.
06:58International law is important when Russia or Putin violates it, but we don't care when Trump violates international law.
07:05Because if you have these double standards, never, ever will other countries take you seriously.
07:10And never, ever will you be a decent player on the international scale.
07:14Okay, on this, I think you want to follow up.
07:18I mean, there is so much to be said.
07:21I think it was now the fourth or fifth conspiracy theory from Mr. Potenga in today's talk about freedom being
07:27limited in Europe.
07:28There is no part on this planet, no continent, no country where freedom is so much established and so much
07:33defended and strong as it is in Europe.
07:36Obviously, also that we have this debate today, also that extremists have all democratic rights in parliaments in Europe, including
07:45the very European parliament.
07:46And all of this is about freedom.
07:48And then mixing things up doesn't make it better.
07:51Of course, when international law is violated, Europe is the strongest voice speaking about that.
07:56Europe stood strong against Trump's attempt, for example, when it comes to Greenland.
08:01And we succeeded in that area.
08:03Europe stood strong when it was not clear whether the terrorists will go that way or the other way from
08:08Trump's side.
08:09He put us in a limbo again, but we didn't follow this pathway of a limbo.
08:14We didn't enter this political battlefield of Trump.
08:16We stood strong and we managed to succeed more when it comes to the geopolitical tensions given than other parts
08:25of the world.
08:25But, of course, we need more strength to the outside, especially in that field you are doubting in the field
08:30of our own security and being able to take care of it.
08:33Marc Magia, you want to react?
08:35And then your question to Lucas Mandel.
08:37Well, I think it's interesting because very often the EPP and central parties, when they don't have an answer, they
08:42say this is a conspiracy theory.
08:43What we see in many countries, like in Germany now, there's a debate even on saying we can't use the
08:48watermelon anymore as a political symbol because it would be anti-Semitic.
08:51This is, you know, what we are seeing.
08:53We're seeing this also with action against trade unions in different countries.
08:57So we see that there's a democratic backsliding, which human rights organizations are pointing out in Europe.
09:02You know, it's not some kind of left conspiracy to say that.
09:05But you don't want to see it because it's your government's doing it.
09:08Secondly, what I indeed want to ask now, and I think that's a thing.
09:13You say that Europe stands up for international law and you quote Greenland.
09:19But Europe didn't stand up for international law in Greenland.
09:22It stood up for its own territorial integrity.
09:26That is something very different.
09:28Because when we had to stand up for international law, the illegal war on Iran, you supported it yourself.
09:34When it is about denouncing the illegal occupation of Lebanon by Israel, you support it.
09:39When the International Court of Justice says that we should sanction Israel as third parties, we have responsibility, you refuse
09:46it.
09:46So basically, when, you know, the Venezuelan president, whatever we think of him, is kidnapped illegally and the world globally
09:53condemns this, saying this is just absolutely not how we deal with, how would I say, with international relations and
09:59this is a violation of the UN Charter, you support it.
10:02So this is the issue.
10:03These double standards.
10:04It's not Europe that has double standards.
10:06But, you know, it is you, it is the governing coalition of Europe that has these double standards.
10:11Look, who is dealing with international law, who is in the lead of preserving it and observing it is the
10:18United Nations.
10:18We had yesterday night in the European Parliament's plenary a debate on the United Nations' necessary reform.
10:25United Nations have to be reformed for obvious reasons.
10:28And if you are telling now that the war on the Iranian regime was wrong, I say, yeah, it was
10:36amateurishly done by the United States while the decapitation of the Mueller regime's leaders worked very well.
10:44But the war obviously was wrong because it didn't work out well.
10:48The Mueller regime is still in place.
10:49I have been sanctioned myself by the Mueller regime since 2023, so I know what I'm talking about when I
10:55say women are suppressed in Iran.
10:58Iran is threatening the whole world, not only the region, and, of course, to threaten our only partner country in
11:05the region, the only democracy, the only rule of law-based state in the region, Israel, is part of the
11:11conspiracy theories of your political side.
11:12And this is a sign of freedom in Europe, that you can speak freely about that, even if it's a
11:19very much in minority being opinion.
11:23But you are allowed to say that, and there are no many parts on Earth where you can do that.
11:27And last point on Greenland.
11:29I mean, when international law is violated, it doesn't matter whether it's Europe's interest or ours' interest.
11:33We care for international law.
11:34We even want to save international law during these geopolitical times of tensions.
11:39And that means that we have to reform the United Nations.
11:42Okay, thank you for a great debate so far.
11:46We've heard your views.
11:48Now it's time to hear from a new voice.
11:54And for our quote of the week, I would like to bring in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
12:00In a letter addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, she said this.
12:04We cannot justify to our citizens that the EU allows financial flexibility to be used for security and defense purposes
12:13in the strictest sense, but not to protect families, workers and enterprises from a new energy crisis that threatens to
12:21severely impact the real economy.
12:26Your take on this, Mark?
12:28Well, two things.
12:28First, she's walked back to her statement.
12:30Secondly, it's terribly hypocritical because the fact that we now have, again, these horrible austerity rules was approved by her
12:39government.
12:39So first, and this is fantastic, first, the far right approves this or the center right, whatever you want to
12:44call her, approves these rules.
12:46And then they say, ah, it's not fair.
12:48So this is, you know, pure populism.
12:50But what is true is that Europe today says there's no money for your hospitals, for your pensions, for your
12:57schools.
12:57But miraculously, we find hundreds of billions for the defense multinationals.
13:03You know, this contradiction is real.
13:04And so, indeed, we do not need these austerity rules anymore.
13:08And once again, they've been imposed by the mainstream parties, including Giorgia Meloni's.
13:13Okay.
13:13Lucas Mandel, your reaction?
13:14Yeah, this is part of the extremist, populist approach.
13:16I think also the consumers, viewers of this program should see that there is no contradiction between producing something on
13:23European soil instead from buying it from outside and having hospitals and schools and streets.
13:30Because the one thing is connected with the other.
13:33If we have strong prosperity, if we have growth, finally, in Europe again, we will also be able to afford
13:38the social welfare states.
13:39We have established generations before us have established in Europe, and we will have schools and roads.
13:46And another major issue that dominated the European news agenda this year was the war in Iran and the impact
13:53it's happening on the European Union and also on our economies.
13:56We had a lively debate between the Spanish MEP from the Socialists, Hannah Khalul, and the Austrian MEP from the
14:03European People's Party, Reinhard Lopatka.
14:08As you know, and as my prime minister have stated, we think that any unilateral military intervention that has not
14:16passed through the security against the United Nations is not in compliance with international law.
14:21So, we condemn any unilateral attack.
14:26This is not to say that we are supporting the Iranian regime in any case, you know, because we have
14:31been against the Iranian regime criticizing the killing of Masha Amini and, you know, the protesters, you know, in the
14:36streets that were fighting for human rights and their liberties.
14:40And we have always condemned the relation of the Iranian regime with the militias such as Hezbollah or the Houthis
14:48or Hamas.
14:49So, very critical with them always.
14:51And we fought to include the Revolutionary Guard in the EU terrorist list.
14:55So, a condemnation of the Iranian regime, but also of the US-Israeli intervention.
15:01Mr. Lopatka, do you think that this military intervention from the US and Israel was justified?
15:07I can't agree.
15:09Why?
15:10Because if we would wait until the Security Council of the United Nations is acting, we would never have a
15:16result.
15:17You know, it is blocked by Russia and China.
15:21They always support Iran.
15:22Whatever is ongoing there.
15:24So, don't forget, this regime in Iran, the Mullah regime, is a terrorist regime.
15:30What did they do?
15:32They killed thousands of their own people.
15:36There was state oppression to the Kurds.
15:39There are 8 million Kurds.
15:40Have in mind how they killed Masha Amini some years ago.
15:46They are founding terrorist groups in the region.
15:50Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis.
15:53And they are a big danger also for Europe.
15:56We should not forget it.
15:57It was a diplomat.
15:59He was in Vienna, in our embassy.
16:02Then he was sentenced here in Belgium for 20 years because he was supporting terrorism here on European soil.
16:09So, what I want to say is we can speak about international law.
16:16And here you can say maybe it was illegal.
16:19But I think the United States and Israel were legitimized to start with these strikes.
16:27So, let me put that argument to you, MEP, he's saying, well, maybe the legality is questionable.
16:33But isn't Europe letting the US and Israel do its dirty work in the Middle East by going after the
16:39proxies, going after the nuclear and missile programs of Tehran, for example?
16:43Do you agree with that?
16:44Well, what I do think is that we have diplomacy for something.
16:47First of all, we cannot use double standards.
16:50We cannot criticize other aggressions, you know, for other countries and then say that this is something we can.
16:56But this is about international law, the system that we gave to ourselves after 45.
17:00So, either we believe in international law or we don't believe in that.
17:03And we have means like diplomacy.
17:05Let's remember that one day before the conflict, even the Iranians sitting in a table of negotiations with the Omanis
17:13said that it will work not to enrich themselves.
17:16We know that and we have investigating and we send inspectors in order to see that it will enrich.
17:21And even if the director of the nuclear agency said a few days ago that they were not sure that
17:28they were building nuclear weapons,
17:31but they had more than 60% of the allowed enrichment of uranium.
17:34So, we have been very critical of that.
17:36We were under control.
17:37But don't forget that we have also a deal in 2015 between Iran and six other countries where the US
17:41were within that countries, even Russia and China.
17:44And then the US unilaterally deployed afterwards, which had as a consequence Iran enriching much more and restricting more of
17:54the inspections.
17:55So, either we have a consensus against Iran on diplomacy, fighting the enrichment on uranium and targeting any other kind
18:04of activities they can have.
18:06Or, I mean, it cannot be unilateral.
18:08We need to go all together and based on international base rule system.
18:11You bring up this question of double standards because the EU does pride itself on upholding the rules-based order,
18:17international law.
18:18You said yourself that you question the legality of this.
18:21Yet, the EU always is talking about international law in places like Ukraine.
18:25Isn't this double standards from the EU?
18:27No, not at all.
18:28Why?
18:29There's a big difference between the invasion in Ukraine of Russia to take the country, not respecting the sovereignty, not
18:38at all.
18:38And the situation here.
18:40The UN charter, and I'm absolutely sure that the purpose of it is to protect human life and not to
18:48shield terrorist regimes like in Iran.
18:51The Security Council is not working.
18:53So, we are in a very difficult situation because I think the bigger threat is when the Security Council is
19:02misused by regimes like Iran, by dictators like Putin.
19:10And on the other side, we have to do everything to protect the interests of our people and fighting terrorism.
19:21And Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism.
19:25Giving Israel the chance to survive as a nation.
19:29I think this is our duty and it's absolutely in the interest of Europe.
19:34So, there's a big difference and no double standards, not at all.
19:41As you can see, there are lots of questions, but really hard to find the answers.
19:45Now, it's time for us to take a short break here on this special summer edition of The Ring.
19:49Don't go anywhere.
19:50We'll be back soon.
19:59Welcome back to this special summer edition of Euronews Debate Show, The Ring.
20:04I'm Maid McMahon in Brussels.
20:06And as MEPs take a break from the city for the summer and the activities in the European Parliament Institute
20:11behind me take a slow,
20:13we're looking back at some of the highlights of this season on The Ring.
20:17One topic that featured a lot was, of course, the war in Iran and how Europe should respond.
20:22We can take a look now at an excerpt from this edition between Rio Terras, the Estonian European People's Party
20:27MEP,
20:28with Oswald Demariel, a far-left MEP from Germany.
20:35We have seen wars emerge around us.
20:40Europe has not launched any wars.
20:42Europe has not in the last, like, 70 years not been part to a war itself.
20:48But we see others attacking European countries around us.
20:52Do you think that Europe can solve these problems diplomatically or do we need military means to back up our
21:00diplomatic efforts?
21:02And if not, what is the other way?
21:04To be honest, yes, the European Union as the European Union didn't launch wars.
21:10But European member states were also in the past part of wars, like we saw in Afghanistan, like we saw
21:18in Iraq, like we saw in Libya.
21:20It was not, the UK is not anymore European Union, but it was also European countries.
21:27So it's not true that the European Union in the past was just standing for diplomacy and against wars in
21:33this world.
21:33So if we want to answer the times of wars, we have to go back and to stop about talking
21:40just about militarization.
21:42Do you know the definition of a dialogue?
21:44Yes, sure.
21:45That means that it needs two parts to what we want to discuss, to talk to each other.
21:50If one side wants to talk and the other one is not, and I have been experiencing myself trying to
21:55reach out to the Russian chief of defense,
21:58as I was chief of defense, and the response was, why?
22:01Nobody wants to talk to us.
22:02And not the dictator Putin, not Chairman Xi, they don't care.
22:08And as long as we are weak, we are not at the table.
22:12And the dialogue needs two sides.
22:15And if Russia understands only military means, and they did not use diplomacy against Ukraine.
22:21Maybe a reaction on them to that.
22:22I don't know what you mean with weak.
22:24European Union is one of the huge or one of the biggest economic powers of the world.
22:30And also the European member states has a lot of military instruments, and we are spending a lot of money
22:36for military means.
22:38So it's like this.
22:39The facts are on the table.
22:41So don't tell just we are like this or we are like this.
22:44What is happening by now is that the European Union also decided, like the U.S., like China, like other
22:51big powers in this world, that they want to defend its own interests.
22:56And this means resources of the world, trade routes of the world by military means.
23:00And what this means is that people are dying, that the working class all over the world is paying the
23:07bill for it.
23:08And this is not acceptable.
23:09This is why I'm rejecting this military means.
23:12And I'm saying we have to find another way to protect lives, to protect our earth.
23:17There are certain things we cannot do yet that still responds to what we can or cannot do.
23:23So we need to invest commonly together to a drone defense because we have seen a new weapon developing a
23:32disruptive technology which has been used in Ukraine and kills people.
23:36We need, for example, to invest in this kind of technologies in order to make sure that our people are
23:43defended and they are not dying.
23:46Let me say clearly it's not a solution for nobody to prolong wars.
23:51And it's also like this that not just Putin said, I don't want to negotiate.
23:56It was also like this that the Western countries long, long time said we had no possibilities to negotiate.
24:01We don't want to negotiate.
24:03And this was prolonging this war.
24:07And the result of this war is not good for the Ukrainian people.
24:10So let me say this.
24:13You are from the EPP and you are standing for a conservative politics.
24:17You are in the last weeks.
24:19Your group has really weakened the right of asylum in European Union systems.
24:26And it's like this that the war in Iran also has the result that people had to flee, that they
24:33become refugees and maybe they want to come here.
24:35What is your answer?
24:36Why are you supporting wars or not rejecting wars, not doing everything to stop wars and on the other side
24:43working against people who are affected by these wars and become refugees?
24:47What is your answer on it?
24:48May I start with saying EPP is not launching wars, is not causing wars.
24:53And the only thing EPP stands for is to defend people against the wars which are around us, be it
25:00an Iran regime which has been killing, torturing people 47 years, or be it Russia, who has never listened to
25:11anybody who launched wars since 2008, whose political aims are, who wants to achieve its political aims by military means.
25:21And just on the potential refugee ways.
25:23Yeah, yeah, I'll come back to that.
25:24And so that is not what we want.
25:27And we want European people to live safely in Europe.
25:32But we are ready to take refugees, but we don't want to have illegal refugees.
25:38We don't want to have economical refugees.
25:40We want to know who is living in Europe and who is not.
25:45And that's what we stand for.
25:46It is now time to move on to our fifth and final round.
25:50Are you ready?
25:54So now it is time for something a little bit different.
25:57I'm going to be asking our MEPs a set of questions.
26:00And you only have the opportunity to answer with yes or no.
26:05So was it a good idea to kill the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei?
26:09Yes or no?
26:11I don't like him, but I don't think that it's illegal and it shouldn't be.
26:17Was it a good idea?
26:18Yes or no?
26:18Yes.
26:19Is the U.S. still a friend to the European Union?
26:22Yes or no?
26:23Yes.
26:24The U.S. people?
26:25Yes.
26:25Trump?
26:25No.
26:26Should the EU be more involved in this war?
26:29Yes or no?
26:30Clearly no.
26:31Yes.
26:32And should European countries increase defence spending?
26:35Yes or no?
26:35Yes.
26:37No.
26:38Should Europe focus on renewable energy?
26:40Yes or no?
26:41Yes.
26:42And manage a mix.
26:44And should NATO be involved if the conflict expands?
26:48Yes or no?
26:49No.
26:50No, I'm against NATO also.
26:52And just a question on European governments.
26:54Should European governments be subsidising energy costs today now to protect consumers?
26:59Yes or no?
26:59Yes.
27:00Yes.
27:01And is Iran a direct threat to European security?
27:04No.
27:05Yes and it has always been.
27:08Okay and have you agreed on anything that you've heard here?
27:14And what about you?
27:15Have you agreed?
27:15I agree that renewable energy is a part of the energy mix.
27:22And you can watch the full episode of that edition of The Ring on Euronews.com.
27:26But that does bring this special summer edition of The Ring to an end.
27:31We'll be back very soon.
27:32But in the meantime do let us know what topics you want us to debate here.
27:35The ring at Euronews.com.
27:37That is our email address.
27:39But for now thanks for tuning in.
27:40Take care and see you soon on Euronews.
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