Cingolani: “Peace must be defended. A European effort is needed”

19 April 2024

In an interview published today in Il Foglio, authored by Ruggiero Montenegro, Leonardo’s CEO Roberto Cingolani analyses the historical reasons that have led Italy and Europe to their current geopolitical position, highlighting the need to overcome the fragmentation of the Defence sector and the importance of promoting joint investments.

“We are facing a momentous change. And in the face of new, urgent scenarios, we need extraordinary solutions: European Defence is one of them.” This is the starting point for Roberto Cingolani, who emphasises how the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East require a change in pace and approach.

As Cingolani explains, “Making a comparison with the United States, we can see that the Americans invest more in defence, research, and development. But more importantly, they do it better: they concentrate investments on a limited number of platforms, thus achieving better technologies at lower costs”.

In contrast, European states act independently, investing in a non-rationalised manner in different projects. According to Cingolani, “the European Defence space topic has, first and foremost, a technological significance. If we were to create larger structures, joint ventures with a more unified and visionary European policy, we could be more advanced and therefore more secure”.