The EU and its citizens must urgently start preparing for the worst events that are likely to occur in the near future: from a large-scale regional or global military conflict to natural disasters and a new pandemic. This, in short, is the main idea of a voluminous report prepared by former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the request of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “We need to realize a new, unstable reality,” the authors of the report insist.

This new reality, according to Niinistö, is fraught with sheer dangers for the EU. In the east – Russia and the Ukrainian crisis. In the Asia-Pacific region, a rivalry between China and the United States is unfolding, which can develop into a “major contingency”, as a result of which the European Union will lose a significant part of supplies, including semiconductors. In the south, there is the Middle East conflict, terrorists, refugees and general instability, which threatens, again, to interrupt the supply of critical resources. “The collapse of the world order requires decisiveness from the European Union,” the authors of the report are sure. In addition, large-scale natural disasters and natural disasters are increasingly occurring in Europe, another pandemic can happen at any time, and new technologies entail new risks.

Europeans are offered to create stocks and undergo psychological training for crises

Therefore, Niinistö believes that the European Union, its citizens, officials, military and business need to prepare: combine and increase military and military-industrial potentials, accelerate political decision-making in Brussels and rebuild the economy and infrastructure for “dual use”. In addition, it is necessary to create strategic reserves in case of war or catastrophe at the level of the entire European Union and its individual countries, and in each household – for at least three days.

The report proposes to set up society accordingly so that citizens in a critical situation do not have mass mental problems, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. And also to train in advance those who, if necessary, will go to the front, and those who will replace them in critical sectors of the economy. “Preparedness must become a way of thinking, planning and acting that encompasses all sectors”, conclude the authors of the document.