SOFIA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The debate over the future of European defense has been chaotic and difficult due to different understandings in the European Union (EU) member states, a Bulgarian expert said here on Tuesday.
"A recent survey has shown that Europeans want more Europe in security and defense, more joint efforts to address the risks and threats facing the European continent," Yordan Bozhilov, president of the Sofia Security Forum, said during an international conference dedicated to the future of European defense.
Unfortunately, said Bozhilov, the public debate on this issue has been chaotic and lacked understanding of what is possible, what is achievable and what Europe should strive for.
Bozhilov, who served as cabinet chief of Bulgaria's minister of defense between 2010 and 2013, said debate over the future of European defense would not be easy for several reasons.
First, individual European countries have different risk and threat assessments, and hence their ambitions also differ -- what the EU should strive for and what European defense should be like, he explained.
"We have different defense cultures. Some countries can make decisions much faster than others," he said, adding that certain countries are more ambitious than others when it comes to solving problems outside the European continent.
The different levels of defense capability development would also pose a serious challenge to the goal of creating a common European defense policy, he said.
"There is no unambiguous assessment of the role of NATO and the United States in the security of Europe," Bozhilov said.
The conference, held under the patronage of the chairman of the Defense Committee of Bulgaria's National Assembly, gathered some 100 experts from countries such as Bulgaria, Germany, Romania and Ukraine.
