The drone wall suggested by Ursula von der Leyen "to protect Europe from Russia" is also met with suspicion by Macron.
French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists before his meeting with EU leaders in Copenhagen on Wednesday, "I am cautious about such terms. The situation is a bit more complicated and sophisticated," he said, highlighting more urgent defense priorities.
“In reality, we need advanced warning systems to better anticipate threats, we need to be deterrent with Europe's long-range ignition capabilities, and we need more ground-to-air defense and anti-manned aerial vehicle systems,” the French leader said.
In recent weeks, drones have violated Polish, Romania, Denmark and Norwegian airspace, and Europe has blamed Russia in many cases.
These events gave a new impetus to the so-called drone wall initiative, which was first brought to the agenda by the frontline countries last year and supported by von der Leyen in his State of Union speech last month.
But earlier this week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that there are more urgent priorities to be addressed. "Drone defense is of course important, but not with the drone wall," the minister told the audience at the Warsaw Security Forum.
The drone wall debate also highlights that geography has often led to disagreements among European leaders over how to best protect the continent from external threats, including Russia, and these divisions were also seen in Copenhagen when the leaders attended the summit.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned that Europe should not forget the southern flank, and this message was also repeated by his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“No common European defense project related to Europe can be limited to the eastern borders of the continent,” the Greek leader said.
Meanwhile, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda praised the project before the Copenhagen meeting and highlighted the clear difference between the front lines and countries further away from the borders of Russia and Ukraine.
According to Macron, Europeans should instead focus on jointly developing early warning systems (France and Germany are currently cooperating on this issue), acquiring local “deterring” deep attack capabilities, including ballistic missiles, and purchasing more air defense systems.
The French president stated that nuclear deterrence also plays a role. Macron added that this does not mean that unmanned aerial vehicles are not important, adding, "We are moving at an armulting pace to have defensive capabilities against drones and unmanned aerial vehicles."
The unmanned aerial vehicle wall is one of four EU defense projects presented by Brussels ahead of the Council of Europe meeting.