Ministers meet to discuss drone defences after ‘hybrid attack’ on Denmark

Good morning. Donald Trump has escalated his trade war with 100 per cent tariffs on branded pharmaceutical products. The US president said companies building factories in the US would be exempt

Today, our Nordic and Baltic correspondent previews a meeting about drone warfare, which comes just after drones were spotted at several Danish airports. And our Berlin bureau chief interviews Germany’s new deregulation tsar.

Have a great weekend.

Droning on

Europe’s rush to respond to the increasing drone threat steps up with a meeting of ministers today to discuss what a “drone wall” against Russia might look like, writes Richard Milne.

Context: Various countries across the continent have reported airspace violations in recent weeks — some confirmed as being by Russia, some only suspected — that have laid bare their weaknesses.

Defence ministers from across Europe’s eastern flank as well those from Denmark, Slovakia and Ukraine will join a video conference this afternoon convened by EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius to discuss the idea of a “drone wall”, a promising but woolly concept.

Nato officials would also take part in the meeting, the European Commission said.

Denmark is the latest country to be hit, with drones flying over five airports — including two used by the military — without being shot down.

Its problem is subtly different to those of frontline states, who are most worried about aircraft, manned or unmanned, coming directly from Russia or Belarus.

That was the case when multiple Russian drones entered Polish airspace earlier this month, or with the single drone that went into Romania before veering off to attack Ukraine, and the Russian MiG-31 fighters that flew for 12 minutes inside Estonian territory last week.

The drones spotted in Denmark, on the other hand, were potentially launched “in our neighbourhood”, Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said yesterday, calling the incident a “hybrid attack”.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that it was not clear who was behind the incursions. But she added: “I note that there is one country that is the primary enemy of Europe. And that is Russia.” Moscow has denied involvement.

Frederiksen said her government would work with Nato “to ensure safety and security,” after several opposition parties criticised the government for its lack of preparedness.

Meanwhile in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to “shoot down flying objects without discussion when they violate our territory” and called on allies to follow suit.

European countries have discussed various ideas on drone defence, from a Baltic “drone wall” to a “European drone shield”. As is often the case in Europe, the question is how much will be national schemes cobbled together versus an integrated system across the continent.

Chart du jour: Coming of age

Hundreds of start-ups have joined the longevity market. But while promising avenues are being pursued, the field is still in its infancy.

Deregulation, baby

Karsten Wildberger, who heads Germany’s new ministry for state modernisation and digitisation, wants the EU and his country to innovate first, regulate later, writes Anne-Sylvaine Chassany.

Context: Wildberger, the former CEO of Ceconomy, which owns the electronics retailer Saturn, has been tasked by Chancellor Friedrich Merz with bringing Germany’s administration into the digital age and cutting red tape to revitalise the Eurozone’s largest economy.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said he favoured a pause in artificial intelligence regulation because the technology was moving fast and in ways that are difficult to predict. Regulation risked driving entrepreneurs away from the continent, he warned.

“My personal view is that the world has changed dramatically in the last two years, not just geopolitically, but also when you look at the speed at which AI is developing. It’s not just another form of digitisation. It’s a completely new paradigm,” the 56-year-old former corporate executive said.

“We need to start entering the race. But here’s the problem: We regulate before the market is there . . . Sometimes it’s better to pause and think again because things have changed. We have to acknowledge the fact that the world is changing fast.”

In his office overlooking Berlin’s Tiergarten, Wildberger vowed to simplify and unify some of the public services split across Germany’s 16 federal states. Car registrations is one area where he thinks a more centralised system can work.

Wildberger said one way to help the coalition achieve its simplification and digitisation goals — as well as €26bn in cost savings along the way — was to keep cutting red tape high on the agenda.

“We can constantly bring the topic of how we can reduce regulation, how we can reduce red tape and all the complexity,”he said.

For a start, one cabinet meeting in the autumn would be entirely devoted to slashing bureaucracy, he said, promising “meaty” measures.

What to watch today

1. EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius travels to Finland to meet Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and defence minister Antti Häkkänen.

2. EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič meets his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Hong Dien in Hanoi.

Now read these

• Deep water: An FT investigation has tracked down Russia’s Yantar spy ship on its mission to map Europe’s undersea cables.

• Defrost: The EU should use frozen Russian assets to fund a €140bn loan for Ukraine, writes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz writes in the FT.

• Criminal conspiracy: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison for financing a campaign with Libyan money.