EU wants to upgrade massively by 2030 – because of Trump and Russia

The EU wants to massively upgrade until the end of the decade. At their spring summit, the heads of state and government of the Member States decided to decide everything to strengthen Europe’s willingness to defend in the next five years, as the dpa news agency learned from several delegations. For this purpose, the work on the latest proposals of the EU Commission should be driven quickly.

The authority under the leadership of President Ursula von der Leyen wants to award EU loans of 150 billion euros for upgrade projects and exclude defense spending from the strict EU debt rules. According to the plan, a total of 800 billion euros should be mobilized in the next four years alone. In addition, it is planned to loosen requirements and regulations for the armaments industry. The plans should also make it possible to support the Ukraine attacked by Russia even more militarily in the future.

The background to the planning is that, according to the European Commission, the EU must prepare for the possibility of a large -scale war with Russia immediately. “The story will not forgive us inactivity,” warned the Commission in a strategy paper presented shortly before the summit on the future of European defense. Should Russia achieve its destinations in Ukraine, the country will also expand its territorial ambitions. The year 2030 is mentioned as a possible period of time.

The situation is particularly dangerous because US President Donald Trump has announced that the atomic superpower USA will no longer be available unconditionally than a guarantee of peace in Europe in the future. However, it is made clear in the summit declaration that the EU still relies on NATO’s survival.

“The European Council is reminiscent of the fact that a stronger and more powerful European Union in the area of ​​security and defense will make a positive contribution to global and transatlantic security and will be a supplement to NATO,” says the text. For the 23 EU countries, which are also NATO, they continue to remain the basis of their collective defense.

The outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pointed out in Brussels that a huge new financial package for upgrade is currently being planned in the Federal Republic. It is a good sign that the Bundestag in Berlin had decided to change a constitution this week, he said. This will ensure the financing for the defense of Germany, cooperation in Europe and other Ukraine aids.

The summit was overshadowed by the announcement of Hungary not to accept any new EU decisions in favor of Ukraine. As at the special summit on March 6, no common EU text could therefore be accepted.

The Hungarian government justifies its attitude by supporting the course of the new US President Donald Trump. He also wants to force a ceasefire in the war with pressure on Ukraine that Russia started with its attack on the neighboring country in February 2022. The vast majority of the EU countries, however, consider Trump’s course to be wrong and dangerous. The Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson called the procedure at the summit terribly.

Several countries also made it clear that the financial package laced by the Commission would not go far enough. Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriako’s Mitsotakis said, for example, that it should not only be discussed about loans, but also seriously about a renewed, large-scale debt admission of the EU countries, about so-called Eurobonds. So far, this has only been made in Corona pandemic to catch the economic consequences.

So far, countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Austria categorically reject a repetition. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said in Brussels: “We are against Eurobonds. This is not new.” Care for financial stability.

For Chancellor Scholz, the trip to Brussels will probably have been the last to a regular EU summit. The next regular conference of the European heads of state and government is only due to the end of June. In Brussels it is expected to be elected by Friedrich Merz (CDU) by the Bundestag as the next German Chancellor.