Europe needs to accelerate its defence buildup and strengthen its military capabilities in response to growing security challenges and continued Russian hybrid activity, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

Axar.az reports, citing the European Commission, that speaking after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels, Kallas said Europe needed a decisive change.

“Let me just say that Europe needs to rearm more quickly and more effectively to meet our target of 2030. Europe needs a decisive change in the scale and pace of defence investment, capability development, innovation, and industrial capacity.”

Kallas said EU member states had also discussed Russia’s continued sabotage, arson and airspace violations. She said ministers had begun discussing a new emergency security protocol to coordinate an EU response to hybrid attacks that fall below the threshold of armed aggression.

“Russia's sustained act of sabotage, arson, and airspace violations persist. On the EU side, sanctions against perpetrators and the expulsion of Russian diplomats spiked. But we need to look into what more can we do.”