‘Woke Europe not facing civilisational erasure,’ says EU’s Kallas after Rubio’s Munich speech – as it happened

From 14h ago 08.48 GMT 'Contrary to what some say, woke decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure,' EU's Kallas says EU’s Kallas is speaking on the main stage now. In her first response to Rubio’s speech yesterday, she somewhat snarkily says that “contrary to what some may say woke decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” and says that many countries still “want to join our club – and not just fellow Europeans,” pointing to Canada. She says that Russia continues to pose a significant challenge. “This starts in Ukraine, but we know that Russia’s endgame is not Donbas,” she says, pointing to continuing attempts to sabotage or undermine EU countries. She continues: “But let’s be clear-eyed about Russia: Russia is no superpower. After more than a decade of a conflict, including 4 years of full-scale war in Ukraine. Russia has barely advanced beyond the 2014 lines, and the cost? 1.2 million casualties. Today, Russia is broken, its economy is in shreds. It is disconnected from the European energy markets and its own citizens are fleeing. In fact, the greatest threat Russia presents right now is that it gains more at the negotiation table, then it has achieved on the battlefield.” Share Updated at 10.22 GMT

10h ago 12.06 GMT Closing summary Jakub Krupa in Munich … and on that note, it’s a wrap for today and for our coverage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference! “Contrary to what some may say, woke decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, insisted as she appeared on stage on the final day of the conference (9:48).

But Kallas welcomed US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s speech from Saturday, saying that “we don’t see eye to eye in all the issues and that this will remain the case as well, but I think we can work from there” (9:51).

But other European leaders urged Europe to not “cling to love words” from the US, but focus on reforming itself, ramping up its defence production and strenghtening its strategic independence (9:52, 9:53, 9:58).

The European Central Bank president, Christine L