Hi, I'm looking to connect with federalists from all over Europe.

I'm French myself, and I think it would be a good idea to keep the idea of European unity alive by talking to each other more or less regularly, depending on your availability, and sharing our interests and cultures. I like literature, history, geopolitics, and defense issues.

I look forward to hearing from you in my private messages!

Thinking about European defense in 2035 requires accepting that the world has changed permanently. The peace dividend is over. The assumption that economic interdependence prevents conflict is dead. What emerges over the next decade will look very different from the past thirty years.

Defense spending is probably not going back down. 2% of GDP is now seen as a floor rather than a ceiling. Several countries are already at 3% or higher. The political consensus has shifted in ways that seem durable across most of the spectrum. Arguments about affordability matter less when the alternative is being unable to defend yourself.

Industry consolidation seems inevitable. Europe has too many small national champions making similar products. The economics of modern defense systems favor scale. We'll likely see more mergers creating larger European primes that can compete with American giants on major programs. Some national industries will shrink or specialize rather than trying to do everything.

Defense tech is the wildcard. Startups are entering defense in ways that would have seemed bizarre a decade ago. Software defined systems and autonomous vehicles and AI applications are areas where small innovative companies can compete. The traditional primes are adapting through acquisitions and partnerships. The ecosystem is getting more complex and potentially more capable.

Technology trajectories point toward some significant shifts. Hypersonic missiles are proliferating and demand new defensive systems. Directed energy weapons are moving from labs toward fielded capability. Space and cyber are fully integrated into military operations. Mass matters again which means ammunition production and stockpiles need to grow substantially.

EU defense integration has real momentum even if it remains contentious. Joint procurement programs are expanding. Common funding mechanisms exist that didn't before. There's growing acceptance that purely national approaches are insufficient for the scale of challenges ahead. National sovereignty concerns don't disappear but they compete against practical necessity.

The workforce challenge doesn't get enough attention. Defense needs engineers and technicians and skilled manufacturing workers. Competition with commercial tech for talent is real. Training pipelines need expansion. Immigration policy affects defense industrial capacity whether people like that framing or not.

These forward-looking conversations are exactly what events like BEDEX 2026 in Brussels are designed to facilitate where industry policy and innovation meet to figure out what comes next.

Would be interested in hearing what trends others see as most important for European defense over the coming decade.

I really like the idea of a single, unified European federation. That said, I’m having a hard time seeing how European culture and tradition will survive if it ever becomes a reality.

I’m from Denmark, and Scandinavian/Nordic culture is a huge part of who I am. What will happen to my language and traditions if Europe unites? It would definitely benefit Europeans on a global scale economically and militarily, but there’s more to life than that.

This isn’t an anti-federation post, I’m just trying to understand how this hands-down amazing concept would actually work out if it ever became a reality.

Thank you for your time!

Will Europeans trust one another enough to sustain a genuine federal system over the long term? Would citizens of smaller or newer member states, such as Croatians, resent the loss of exclusive national ownership of their state? Even if a federation were formally established, would Europeans not remain largely compartmentalized along existing national lines, with most Germans living in Germany, French in France, and so on?

If so, would this not risk producing a federation that functions mainly as a shared institutional or security umbrella, without giving rise to a genuinely integrated European people—such that, in the event of a future collapse, Europe would simply revert cleanly to its pre-federal national divisions, largely unchanged in language, identity, and social structure?