The European Union needs to adress the UFO issue

Night lights of Europe. Credit: NASA (CC BY 2.0).

Since December 2017, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have gone from ridicule to a matter of national security in the USA. In Europe, the silence in mainstream media and politics is universal. 

The magnitude of attention to the UFO issue in the USA is remarkable compared to Europe. The difference in attention is especially stark in the political domain: no official representative of the European Union has made any comment on the UFO issue. So why the absence of attention on the UFO issue in Europe, and why does it matter?

Before we can explore the questions raised above, we first have to give a crude overview of what has happened with the UFO issue in the USA since 2017. The overview only shows four major events that helped transition the status of UFOs from a fringe topic to a national security issue in the U.S. Congress.

1. The New York Times published an article on December 16, 2017, that revealed a secret UFO program within the U.S. Department of Defense. It was the start of an avalanche of attention on UFOs from the mainstream media and politicians in the USA.

2. The Pentagon acknowledged that the three U.S. Navy UFO videos accompanied in the December 16 2017 NYT-article are indeed showing unidentified flying objects (or the preferred term by the Pentagon, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)).

3. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence delivered a preliminary assessment of UAP/UFOs on June 25, 2021. The assessment was a direct consequence of what started with the NYT-article mentioned above. In the preliminary assessment, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, a UFO “office”, established in August 2020, which produced the assessment, stated that a) UFOs/UAP are real, and that b) some of the analyzed UFO cases (all military cases/reports) cannot be identified with any conventional explanation.

4. On December 2021, a more robust and comprehensive UFO office replaced the UAP Task Force. It resulted from a bipartisan effort, led by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand’s UAP amendment was included in the final 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

Note that no official institution or representative mentioned in the overview is claiming that UFOs/UAP are extraterrestrial. 

Since the UFO issue has become a national security issue in the U.S. Congress, worthy of serious investigation by the U.S. military and intelligence community, why is the European Union (EU) silent on UFOs/UAP?

We can only speculate on the reasons for the considerable contrast in attitude and handling of the UFO issue between the USA and the EU. However, it is unlikely that the contrast is because of UFOs/UAP being sighted and detected only by the U.S. armed forces. We know that the UFO phenomenon is global. In an article in Scientific American, a planetary scientist at NASA and an astrobiologist, writes:

… UAP phenomena are not U.S.-specific events. They are a worldwide occurrence. Several other countries studied them. So shouldn’t we as scientists choose to investigate and curb the speculation around them?

As the scientists mention in the quote, there are many nations which have had government-sponsored UFO investigations (the list is not exhaustive) before the rekindled interest of the U.S. Congress.

Thus, we find it somewhat peculiar that neither EU-politicians nor the mainstream media in European nations are publicly discussing or investigating the UFO issue: what do the military of European nations know about UFOs/UAP? Moreover, we would like to know where the scientific community of the EU stands on the UFO issue.

To be clear, we do not suggest an intentional silence or a cover-up of the UFO issue by the EU. Our point is that considering the governmental and scientific interest in the UFO issue on the other side of the Atlantic, it is strange the waves have not made a greater impact on the European continent. 

For example, it seems unlikely that governmental and military officials in the EU are unaware of the key focus on the UFO and nuclear-weapons connection in the Gillibrand UAP amendment. As far as we know, there are still nations within the EU with nuclear-weapons capabilities. 

So, is it reasonable to assume that nuclear-weapons facilities in the EU are exempt from UFO/UAP incidents? (There are historical cases, but we are mainly referring to eventual ongoing UFO incidents associated with nuclear assets in the EU).

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Furthermore, is it reasonable to assume that military and civilian pilots operating over Europe do not have UFO sightings and, sometimes, collect data on unidentified flying objects? We are confident that the answer to all questions raised above is: no.

Again, the answer does not imply a comprehensive or coordinated cover-up by the EU. The best explanation for the apparent lack of interest in the UFO issue during the last five years (since the NYT-article 2017), is probably that the EU has been busy with economical (aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis) and political (immigration crisis, Brexit, etc.) issues. And, as in the rest of the world, the EU has dealt with the COVID pandemic since early 2020.

So, in a way, it is understandable that the UFO/UAP issue has been absent from the political agenda and in the public discussion in the European nations. 

Nonetheless, we question whether the absence is morally and/or legally justified.

 As established above, the UFO phenomenon is global, and it has a strong association with military nuclear assets. If the EU has ongoing UFO incursions over nuclear-weapons facilities, then the public has a right to know (that is, it is a question of democracy). The EU is facing an energy crisis, and public information on frequency and severity of UFO incidents in association with nuclear facilities (both military and civilian) can be crucial for future energy policies.  

Credit: torange.biz (CC BY 4.0).

Another crucial reason is the technological opportunities that scientific studies of UFOs/UAP can discover. Humanity is confronting the existential threat of climate change, with all its chain reactions (extinction of flora and fauna, mass-movement of people due to lack of glacial water, etc.). Scientific studies of the propulsion systems and energy sources of UFOs/UAP might lead to solutions to many of the current issues that take a toll on the environment. 

There is no time to waste. The EU can and should give the same serious attention to the UFO issue as the USA. A lack of transparency on the UFO issue is a threat to democratic values as justice and the right of every individual to make informed and autonomous decisions.

Most important, what is at stake is the quality of life for the world’s future generations.