European Security Council: Von der Leyen’s bold SOTEU proposal

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to call for the creation of a new ‘European Security Council’ in her annual State of the European Union address, according to a draft text reviewed by Euractiv. The proposal marks one of the most significant institutional shake-ups floated in years — and it’s landing at a moment when Europe’s defence landscape looks nothing like it did even 18 months ago.

What the proposal actually means

The idea, as outlined in the draft SOTEU text, would establish a dedicated body to streamline security and defence decision-making across EU member states. Right now, those decisions get filtered through a tangle of existing councils and intergovernmental structures that critics say are too slow and too fragmented. A European Security Council could, at least in theory, cut through that.

But the devil is always in the details. The draft doesn’t yet specify how many member states would sit on the council, what voting rights would look like, or how it would interact with NATO’s existing command structures. Those are enormous gaps.

A senior EU official familiar with the speech said the proposal is intended to signal that “Europe is ready to take its security into its own hands” — a pointed message given Washington’s increasingly ambivalent posture toward the continent.

The timing isn’t accidental. Von der Leyen is delivering her address with Russia’s war in Ukraine grinding into its third year and defence budgets across the bloc rising sharply — Germany alone has committed over €100 billion to military modernisation.

Whether member states actually back the idea is another question entirely. Smaller nations have historically resisted anything that smells like a two-tier EU. Still, the proposal is guaranteed to dominate the conversation in Strasbourg and well beyond it.