Brussels, Mar 6 (EFE) – European Union leaders agreed Thursday to boost security and defense spending to rearm Europe in the wake of Russian aggression over Ukraine and the United States’ turnaround with the return of President Donald Trump to the White House.
In the conclusions of the extraordinary summit convened by European Council President António Costa, the 27 EU pledged to “accelerate the mobilization of the necessary instruments and funding to strengthen the security of the European Union and the protection of our citizens.”
There was unanimous for strengthening European defense; however, there was no consensus on military for Ukraine, as Hungary was at a distance.
Brussels estimates that the rearmament strategy will be able to mobilize up to 800 billion euros, mainly thanks to new flexibility in the Community’s deficit and debt rules, as well as a new credit instrument of 150 billion euros financed by t debt issues.
In the debate on this new financial instrument, several delegations, including Spain and , asked that at least part of the funds be in the form of grants and not just loans, according to sources.
The strategy also calls for countries to redirect European regional funds to security and defense and to use the European Investment Bank’s full financing capacity.
The leaders even identify a number of “priority areas,” which include air and ballistic defense, artillery systems, missiles and munitions, drones and counter-drone systems, space technology, critical infrastructure protection, military mobility, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and electronic warfare.
Spending on defense
The urgency of the situation in Ukraine, in particular the prospect of the United States withdrawing military and the need to guarantee the country’s security after a possible peace agreement, made it possible to overcome the reluctance of some countries to issue European debt and to loosen the fiscal straitjacket.
Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, together with their eastern partners bordering Russia, have become the proponents of an exponential increase in spending.
will suspend its own national debt limit to undertake a half-trillion-euro investment program in defense.
“The most important thing now, to be very frank, is to rearm Europe, and I don’t think we have much time,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“Rearming Europe, spending, spending, spending on defense and deterrence, that’s the most important message,” Frederiksen added.
Similarly, the prime ministers of Poland, Donald Tusk; Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda; and Latvia, Evika Silina, said the measures on the table Thursday should be just a first step toward increasing defense spending, even well above the 2 percent of GDP threshold required by NATO.
“The decision on this 150 billion and other proposals (…) is obviously not enough, is a massive step, but not enough,” said Tusk, who believes it will be inevitable to raise national defense spending to 3% of GDP.
“It’s fine if (other countries) are not ready today, but we will certainly need a much stronger commitment tomorrow,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for additional budgetary leeway for a few years and for a long-term change in the rules so that states can spend on defense. EFE
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