BRUSSELS: EU countries on Friday kicked off their first talks on proposals to build a "wall" of anti-drone defences, after air incursions from Russia rattled eastern members.
Focus has sharpened in recent days on the threat to Europe's airspace as unidentified drones have shut airports in Denmark.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen made a first call for a "drone wall" in a keynote speech earlier this month, hours after Nato shot down Russian drones in Poland.
She said it should be "a European capability developed together, deployed together and sustained together, that can respond in real time".
"This is not an abstract ambition", von der Leyen said.
European defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius was seeking to put flesh on the hastily-drawn up proposals in the video talks on Friday with defence officials from some 10 EU countries.
"The main aim is to get an idea of critical gaps and needs, including finances", an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Those involved are mostly along the EU's eastern border with Russia and Ukraine, although Denmark was added to the list after the drone incidents there.
Ukraine — which has developed a raft of capabilities to detect and shoot down Russian drone swarms more cheaply — will also take part.
EU officials concede that for now details remain vague on what the initiative could look like.
The first steps will likely focus on trying to deploy more sensors along the EU's long eastern frontier to detect drone flights, officials said.
It would likely take much longer to develop an integrated system to take down the drones, they said.
Nato's response to the Russian drone incursion in Poland showed up the gaps in the alliance's arsenal for tackling that threat.
Nato had to use top-of-the-range fighters firing costly missiles to shoot down a handful of cheap Russian drones.
The alliance has rushed more hardware to its eastern flank in the wake of the incident, but still lacks the sort of low-cost capabilities Ukraine uses.
The "drone wall" proposal is part of Europe's broader push to bolster its defences in the face of the threat from Russia.
Kubilius has said the programme should be one of the new flagship defence projects that the bloc is working on.
EU leaders are set to debate the defence push — and potential new initiatives — at a summit in Copenhagen next week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Friday that several reconnaissance drones had violated its airspace that were "likely" of Hungarian origin, accusing Budapest of trying to spy on its border areas.
Hungary, Kyiv's fiercest critic in the European Union, did not immediately respond to the accusation.
"Ukrainian forces recorded violations of our airspace by reconnaissance drones, which are likely Hungarian", President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
"Preliminary assessments suggest they may have been conducting reconnaissance on the industrial potential of Ukraine's border areas", he said, adding that he instructed "that urgent reports be made on each recorded incident". — AFP
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