New Strategy Center participated on Saturday, 25 November, in the 24th edition of the European Academy of Young Political Leaders, organized by the Romanian Centre for European Policy in Sibiu.
New Strategy Center was represented by George Scutaru, CEO of NSC, who had a presentation dedicated to the security challenges in the region and the energy stakes.
He presented various scenarios of evolution of the war in Ukraine, stressing the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation, commercial flows and grain exports to global markets. In a very dynamic dialogue with participants, George Scutaru insisted on the need to improve legislation on military procurement, modernisation and expansion of production capacities in the defence industry, especially taking into account the lessons learned from the war. One of them concerns the intensive use of drones, so it would be desirable for Romania to focus on building production capabilities for unmanned systems, both airborne and naval, as well as counterdrone systems.

George Scutaru pointed out that if the situation on the Ukrainian front could worsen amid the decrease in military support for Ukraine, caused by the general feeling of war fatigue, Romania should consider after the 2024 elections to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP, so as to improve in a shorter time the deficit of real deterrence capabilities, especially in the naval field.
Romania’s defence and security policy must not be politicised and must be the subject of political consensus that goes beyond an electoral cycle.
The European Academy of Young Political Leaders is a platform that brings together young politicians from democratic parties on a bi-annual basis, proposing topical issues for discussion, with the aim of professionalising the political class and identifying strategic themes that can benefit from cross-party support.
The initiative is supported by OMV Petrom and brings independent experts from various fields and representatives of central and local government to the young politicians.