Former PL MEP Cyrus Engerer has taken to social media to express his concerns about the international state of affairs, and stated that European countries, inside and outside the EU, need a European Defence Union.

He said that in the final part of his mandate in the European Parliament, "I voted deliberately and without hesitation to make decision making at the European Union genuinely democratic, particularly on foreign policy, defence, and security - the only Maltese to ever do so." He said that current system is "structurally broken. One single Member State can block action for everyone else. Sometimes objections are legitimate. Often they are not. Viktor Orbán's behaviour today is a textbook example. The outcome is paralysis."

This is not because there is no political will or because the idea of the EU is flawed, he said. "It is because unanimity in a Union of 27 Member States, with nine more waiting to join, is a design guaranteed to fail. Yes, I voted to remove unanimity and replace it with a democratic system that still protects smaller Member States while allowing the Union to function. Democracy is not veto by one. Democracy is collective decision making with safeguards. I also voted for Europe to have its own defence capacity."

Engered said that relying on Nato had made sense in the post war era, but no longer does. "Shared values between Europe and the United States were once a given. Today, they are not. When values diverge, dependence becomes vulnerability. That vulnerability affects every European country, Malta included. And I am speaking of Europe deliberately, not just the European Union. This is about the security of the entire continent."

"We are living in the most dangerous period since the end of the Second World War," he wrote.

He made reference to the USA withdrawing "from a series of United Nations bodies whose sole purpose is to prevent conflict, protect civilians, and sustain peace."

He said that the post war era was comparatively safe because almost every country accepted a basic truth: peace, multilateralism, and international law serve humanity's common interest. "That consensus is now fracturing. One of the most powerful countries on earth has decided that global peace is no longer aligned with its own interests. Instead, it is choosing isolation, coercion, and the logic of bullying over cooperation."

Europe, Engerer said, has already seen where this leads. Ukraine was the forst country to pay the price "of a dictator who decided that borders are optional and sovereignty is negotiable." The intention, he said, "was never limited to one region. It was, and remains, about taking everything that can be taken."

He said that Greenland appears to be the next European territory being openly discussed as a "strategic prize."

"Anyone pretending this is hypothetical is not paying attention. This is how erosion begins: test the limits, normalise the threat, then move further. And this is only the beginning."

Will European countries remain silent, he asked, in reference to the European continent and not just EU states,

"Or will Europe finally accept that security, sovereignty, and peace cannot be outsourced? The answer is unavoidable. European countries, inside and outside the European Union, need a European Defence Union."