China and Russia are massively arming themselves with billions of dollars. How much money is needed to protect the EU against new threats and where should it come from? Ursula von der Leyen names options.
According to estimates by the European Commission, in order to be able to protect the EU effectively against threats from countries such as China or Russia, additional investments of around 500 billion euros will be needed over the next decade. While China increased its defense spending by 600 percent and Russia by 300 percent between 1999 and 2021, the increase in the EU was 20 percent, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to participants at the EU summit.
The share of Russia’s military and defense spending in gross domestic product was recently estimated at more than seven percent. In Germany and many other EU countries, it is currently only around two percent or even significantly lower.
According to the information, von der Leyen mentioned a possible increase in national contributions to the Community budget or so-called own resources, which include customs duties on imports into the EU and the EU plastics tax, as an option for medium-term financing of the necessary investments via the EU.
Berlin so far against
If the member states wanted to make large investments in the short term, it would also be possible to take out loans, but these would then also have to be repaid through national contributions and own resources. The decision would have to be made by the member states, said von der Leyen, according to information from participants. The German government, among others, has so far strictly rejected joint borrowing for defense projects.
On the other hand, there are countries like Poland and the Baltic states. They can easily imagine taking out EU loans, for example, to better secure the borders with Russia and Belarus.
According to participants, von der Leyen basically said that security and defense are common public goods. The costs of ensuring security and defense do not outweigh the benefits.
Source: Stern
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