(Brussels) Strengthening the defence system, protecting the “Eastern flank”, providing more support to Ukraine. These are the three main goals that Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, lists in the invitation letter he sent today to the 27 Heads of State and Government of the EU ahead of the “informal meeting” due to take place in Copenhagen on October 1st. “Russia’s recent airspace violations in Poland and Romania are a stark reminder that we must accelerate and deepen our efforts”, Costa began. “In previous meetings, we agreed that Europe must do more – and we must do more together – on defence. The direction of travel is clear: we are building a Europe capable of responding effectively, autonomously and together to today’s and tomorrow’s threats”. The intended goal is “to decisively ramp up Europe’s common defence readiness by 2030”. Quite a few doubts have been raised about “readiness” in 5 years’ time. “In recent months, we have taken important steps to boost defence financing, support our industrial base, and commit to joint efforts on capability development, in particular on enhanced interoperability, joint procurement and aggregation of demand, to achieve scale. This work is done in full coherence with NATO”. The thorny issue of the lack of a common foreign and defence policy is still unsolved.