2023-11-30 20:06:44
Military spending in the European Union has reached a record sum of around 270 billion euros, or some 30 billion more than in 2022, the President of the European Council Charles Michel told the European Security Agency on Thursday. defense.
Published on: 11/30/2023 – 7:06 p.m.
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This is the ninth consecutive year of growth for EU countries, at a time when several of them are defending the need for a significant increase in this spending due to the war started by Russia in Ukraine.
Everywhere, budgets are increasing and sometimes even very sharply increasing: six European countries, notably Sweden, have increased their spending by more than 10%. However, according to the European Defense Agency, EU member countries as a whole have only devoted 1.5% of their GDP to their armies. We are still far from the 2% set by NATO.
Switch to war economy
But with 59 billion euros devoted to military investments, notes Charles Michel, we can do great things and the President of the European Council is pleading for the European Defense Agency to face its transformation to become a true European Ministry of Defense. With the effect of achieving economies of scale.
Charles Michel wants to give greater visibility to the industry. “ Produce, he saidand we will buy, because with the war on our continent, we can guarantee long term contracts ».
In military matters, Europe has become aware of its delay, but it is still struggling to accelerate and move into a war economy. Example with artillery shells, it has committed to supplying one million rounds to Ukraine by next March, a goal which already seems unattainable.
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