The former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius was speaking to a room packed with the leaders of Europe’s biggest defence companies and arms manufacturers.

Most of those in the audience were no doubt keen to get in front of the 68-year-old politician, who several months beforehand had become the first European commissioner for defence policy.

Working under European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the veteran Lithuanian politician has been tasked with helping Europe rapidly shore up its defences in light of the threat posed by Russia.

“We need you to ramp up production on a scale that will deter [Vladimir] Putin ... We cannot expect that Putin will postpone his plans for aggression until we will be ready to defend ourselves,” Kubilius told the defence executives at the industry conference in London in May.

EU states have committed to spend hundreds of billions of euro more on their defence over the coming years to rearm militaries sagging from under-investment, keep pace with the changing nature of cyber and drone warfare and wean themselves off a dependence on the United States to guarantee their security.

That means huge sums of money will flow into the defence industry over the next five years.

Documents obtained by The Irish Times showed many of Europe’s top defence and military manufacturers have not been shy in letting Kubilius know how they think it should be spent.

Italian defence firm Leonardo, French multinational Thales, missile-manufacturer MBDA, Europe’s naval shipbuilders, as well as giants in the US defence industry such as Lockheed Martin, have sought to influence the EU’s plans to m