Europe has been warned; War is looming and "something new" is being created

He therefore called for the construction of a common defense capacity of Europe.

"I think we are living a very important moment in the process of building Europe because war is certainly looming on the horizon," Borrell said during his address at the Europe Forum in Brussels.

Pointing out that Europe is built on dichotomy and that economic integration is left to EU institutions and security to NATO, Borrell said that the EU can no longer rely on this division.

"The war in Ukraine has brutally revealed the world as it is, not as we wanted it to be. It is a world marked by the Russian threat to the EU as a whole," warned Borrell.

According to the transcript of his speech published by the European Service for Foreign Affairs, Borrell said that Europe today feels a challenge and said that the European project will be largely related to the construction of common security and defense.

"That doesn't mean to say that war is imminent and that it will start tomorrow. But we have to make EU citizens understand that the American umbrella that protected us during the Cold War and after it, may not be open all the time," Borrell said.

He pointed out that Europe must build its own common defense capacity.

"NATO will remain absolutely irreplaceable. But within NATO, we have to build a strong European pillar. The war against us will not start tomorrow. But we cannot deny the reality: growing competition between great powers, high-intensity conflicts between countries, weaponization of economic interdependence, cyber warfare and misinformation are part of our reality," warned Borrell.

He also stated that traditional sources of disputes, such as the question of territory, sovereignty and national identity, are returning, along with violent conflicts, and pointed to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

"We imagined that we were surrounded by a ring of friends after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This world is being replaced by a ring of fire around us. From instability from the Sahel to the Middle East, to the Caucasus and the Baltics. Let's not look elsewhere in Africa. There really is a ring of fire around us," Borrell said.

He emphasized that, although Ukraine is not yet a member of the EU, the war against that country "represents a threat to the Union as a whole" and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of planning to "spread his destabilizing activities to the entire Union."

"The destabilization of societies is not carried out only by bombing. You will see in the next European elections how Russian destabilization will threaten our democracy. But the prospects, the possibility of a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy," Borrell said.

He added that it is necessary to do everything in order to avoid this and said that peace in the world cannot be preserved if efforts are not made proportionate to the dangers that threaten.

"I think that the EU today is entering the third moment of its construction: the third moment, the third stage. The first was in 1957: a common market with a limited number of European public policies. The second was the acceleration of economic integration through a single market and a single currency. And the third is started with the war in Ukraine, which will lead to the birth of a strong European pillar of security and defense," said Borrell.