EU pushes to expand drone wall across all member states — Reuters

According to several unnamed EU officials, the proposal for a broader European Drone Defense Initiative will be included in the defense readiness roadmap to be presented by the European Commission on Thursday.

European Commission representatives said the idea is to counter future intrusions by creating a network of sensors, electronic jamming systems, and weapons from the Baltic states to the Black Sea.

Eastern European countries have welcomed the proposal, but southern and western European countries have said it neglects the drone threats in their part of the continent.

European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius also hinted at the changes, using both the old and new names for the project during a speech at a defense conference in Brussels.

"We propose the European drone wall... er... European Drone Defense Initiative, an anti-drone network to protect all Europe, and other defence flagship projects," he said.

Drone wall

Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently proposed creating a drone wall to protect against Russian drones.

The European Union says that EU members should quickly expand their drone defense systems in light of recent airspace violations in several countries. Therefore, the EU supported this initiative.

Recently, seven EU countries, Ukraine, and the European Commission held talks on creating a drone wall. In addition, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini also said that Slovakia would do everything necessary to become part of the drone wall project.

The initiative to create a so-called drone wall to protect the EU's eastern flank has received political support, but at the same time has faced criticism regarding the feasibility, cost, and name of the project.