The European Union will step up efforts to guard against hybrid threats and treat them as a strategic security challenge rather than an unavoidable feature of modern politics, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
Speaking in Berlin after talks with defence ministers from Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Poland, Kallas said the bloc would not accept hybrid operations “as the new normal” and would continue work to strengthen its resilience. The meeting of the so-called European Group of Five comes amid concern in EU capitals over sabotage, cyber attacks, disinformation and pressure on critical infrastructure.
Hybrid threats is the term used in EU and NATO documents for activities that combine military and non-military tools, open and covert measures, and state and non-state actors. They can include cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, economic coercion, instrumentalisation of migration, and sabotage of infrastructure, often in ways designed to blur the line between wartime and peacetime.
In recent months EU agencies and national authorities have reported an uptick in such activity. A Europol threat assessment published earlier this year pointed to a rise in politically motivated cyber attacks and sabotage across the Union, in some cases linked to actors with ties to Russian state structures and using criminal networks as proxies. The report described a pattern of arson, cyber intrusions and other operations aimed at undermining confidence in public authorities and disrupting critical services.
Analyses by European security think-tanks have also identified vulnerabilities in energy systems, ports, telecommunications cables and data networks to hybrid tactics attributed to both Russia and China. These activities range from cyber operations and espionage to information manipulation and economic pressure targeting sectors where European states rely on external suppliers.
Kallas’s comments in Berlin coincide with work in Brussels on a broader defence readiness agenda. In March the European Commission and the High Representative presented a White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030, setting out proposals to improve the Union’s ability to respond to military and hybrid threats. The package, branded the ReArm Europe plan, includes measures to support defence investment, stockpiling and industrial capacity, and places particular emphasis on ensuring that civilian infrastructure can be used for military purposes in a crisis.
A central element of that agenda is the EU’s military mobility plan, which Kallas highlighted after the Berlin meeting. She said the Commission’s forthcoming measures would include pooling member states’ transport resources and speeding up permit procedures for the movement of troops and equipment. The objective is to make it easier for European forces – and, where relevant, allied forces – to cross borders inside the EU and reach potential crisis areas quickly.
Military mobility has been a focus of EU policy since 2017, when governments agreed that the state of bridges, railways, tunnels and ports, and slow cross-border procedures, could limit Europe’s ability to respond to crises on its borders. Under the current seven-year budget the Union has earmarked €1.7 billion for dual-use transport projects under the Connecting Europe Facility, with money going to schemes that adapt roads, rail lines and terminals to carry heavy military equipment. The Commission has proposed a significant increase in transport funding, including for military mobility, in the next budget period from 2028 to 2034.
Alongside infrastructure investment, Brussels has developed a range of tools to respond to hybrid actions. These include a “hybrid toolbox” approved by member states, sanctions regimes targeting cyber attackers and those involved in chemical weapons use, and mechanisms to counter foreign information manipulation and interference. The Council has described disinformation and manipulation of the information space as a key component of many hybrid campaigns, leading to the creation of dedicated units to monitor and expose such activity.
Several member states have called for closer coordination between EU and NATO structures in this area, arguing that hybrid campaigns often target both organisations and exploit overlaps between internal security and external defence. NATO’s own doctrine treats hybrid threats as part of a continuum that spans from peace to armed conflict, and allies have conducted joint exercises to test responses to scenarios involving cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation.
The Berlin meeting of the five major European NATO members, attended by Kallas in her capacity as EU High Representative, formed part of ongoing consultations on how to implement the defence readiness roadmap endorsed by EU foreign and defence ministers. That roadmap is intended to translate recent strategic documents into concrete steps, including higher readiness levels, better protection of critical infrastructure and greater resilience of societies to interference.
By insisting that hybrid threats cannot be regarded as a permanent backdrop, Kallas placed the issue alongside more traditional defence questions on the EU agenda. Her remarks indicate that the forthcoming military mobility package and other readiness measures will be framed not only in terms of supporting Ukraine and strengthening conventional deterrence, but also as part of a wider effort to protect the Union from a spectrum of activities that fall below the threshold of open conflict.
