NATO Air Command released cockpit footage from an F-18 fighter over Romania. Night, darkness, then a flash. A drone that had illegally entered Romanian airspace was destroyed by a Spanish F-18 military aircraft flying an air policing mission.

A Spanish aircraft. Romanian skies. A drone that is neither Romanian nor Spanish. That is one sentence that says more about the state of European security than any summit.

Romanian authorities then announced that parts of the drone had been found in the Black Sea, 1.5 kilometres from the beach at the port of Constanța. A Romanian naval forces team was deployed to examine the remains. The military assessment found the drone was not carrying an explosive charge. The debris was handed over to the Coast Guard for further investigation.

What repeats stops being an incident

This is not the first time. The statement itself notes this is another in a series of drone fragments found on Romanian territory over a short period. When something happens once, it is an incident. When it repeats, it is a condition - and a condition demands a different response than a press release with footage attached.

Romania is a member of NATO and the EU. Its airspace is guarded by allied aircraft. Even so, drone parts end up a kilometre and a half from a beach where, in August, there are people. This time the drone carried no explosives. Anyone reading the phrase „this time” knows what it means.

The distance from Constanța to us is not great, in kilometres or in logic. The Balkans have lived the same dynamic for decades: what happens at the edge of someone's border rarely stays there. Will Europe react now, or wait again for a piece of drone to land somewhere with more people?