Thales Ceo presses Europe’s defense spending to remain in the region

Europe should “take its destination in their own hands” and strive to maintain new defense budgets within its own borders, according to the executive director of the French Defense Giant Such.

The European Union plans Mobilize up to 800 billion euros ($ 841 billion) To increase defense expense. The announcement occurred after the United States, according to reports Military aid stop To Ukraine, increasing the pressure on the block to take action.

“It sounds logical for Europe to take its destination in its own hands and build, if necessary, more and more capacity in terms of engineering, R&D, industry,” said the CEO of Thales, Patrice Caine, to Charlotte Reed from CNBC on Tuesday, after the president of the EU Ursula von der Leyen commission presented the so -called European Plan of Europe.

Caine told CNBC that, in his opinion, it made sense that European companies were beneficiaries of the highest expense.

“It is exactly what happens in the USA. UU., And we are also an American player, so we know how it is. The United States supplies their defense equipment systems to US suppliers. UU., And that is normal. Australia do the same, the United Kingdom does the same, so why should Europe do it differently?”

“If you want to be autonomous, if you want to make sense of the word sovereignty, it must be independent of third parties and be as self -sufficient as possible in this type of capacity,” he said, added that the European defense industry was able to meet demand.

The executive director said that France was an example of a European country, this is 100% self -sufficient. “It’s just a political will to buy European suppliers more and more instead of suppliers with headquarters outside Europe,” he said.

Thales on Tuesday They reported higher income and income By 2024. The shares appeared 12% before the reduction of profits to negotiate 3% more.

The “EU European Plan” strategy reinforces the confidence of the company when it was its future performance, Caine said.

“It reinforces our own conviction that we see a decade of growth for Thales in defense: the equation will not change for 2025, but it is clearly positive in the long term,” he said, emphasizing that there will be “a gap” between the announcement of the plan and any increase in orders.

“Take a little time, let’s say two years, from a political decision to a current contract. So clearly, the future will say, but it is very positive for the general industry, for Europe, see this strong political impulse,” he said.

Europe has been pressed to increase defense budgets later demands of the president of the United States, Donald Trump that NATO European allies spend up to 5% of GDP in defense. Like the EU, the United Kingdom recently announced A significant walk in defense spendingWith Prime Minister Keir Starmer promising that the United Kingdom will spend 2.5% of its GDP in defense by 2027.

European Defense Actions have recovered following the conversations of the president of the European Commission, Uruse Von der Leyen, Starmer and Other leaders By increasing defense budgets. Thales has won 60% since the beginning of the year, while Germany Hensoldt and Sweden Saab It earned 85.5% and 52% respectively during 2025.

However, like Caine, some analysts have warned that it will take time for the new defense spending policies to be profits.

“Defense is a national security problem, so for the price of those companies based on the flow of news that we currently have it is increasingly difficult,” said Christian Mueller-Glyssmann, head of asset allocation in Goldman Sachs.

“The problem is that when it has such a large regime change, these companies can change the way they earn money and how they are integrated into the national security fabric. I understand why they are gathering, there will be much more defense expense, but it will be a process of several years.”