EU must boost efforts to integrate its defence industries - Scholz

The European Union must speed up efforts to integrate its defence industries and the joint procurement of munitions for Kyiv as Moscow presses ahead with its war on Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

Europe will only be heard if it is speaking with one voice, Scholz was set to say at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Europe Day, according to a speech manuscript.

"Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown us how essential this realisation is," he added, saying the EU should aim for much closer military cooperation.