Top five European powers: The arms industry to be the “driver” of the continent’s economy
The future of democracies in Europe depends on increasing military spending, senior defense officials from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Poland and Italy said after a meeting in Poland, Politico reported.
“This 2025 will be the year of speeding up the arms industry in Europe, removing bureaucratic obstacles that slow down that process and closing ranks because we need to show unity to confirm that we take values like security seriously,” Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosinjak-Kamis said at a press conference after the conversation.
As Politico writes, Poland, which borders Russia and Ukraine, plans to spend 4.7 percent of GDP on defense this year, which is by far the highest among NATO members. The United Kingdom, France and Germany spend closer to two percent, which is the current NATO target, while Italy lags behind with 1.49 percent.
Those lower percentages could become a problem when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Last week, he called on NATO allies to spend five percent of their GDP on defense, as this is significantly higher than the US military budget of 3.38 percent, writes Politico.
“We must spend more on security to ensure the presence of American allies in Europe,” said Kosinjak-Kamish. His colleagues were more focused on the way those funds were spent, and not on the numbers themselves, which are attractive to Trump.
“The defense industry is not like milk production”
“Yes, we have to talk about what percentage of GDP we are going to spend on defense, but we also have to be very interested in what exactly that money is spent on, especially in terms of the efficiency of those investments,” said French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecorneuil.
To achieve this, the ministers said that Europe should reduce regulatory barriers in the defense industry and join together in joint procurement and provide better access to credit.
“It would be good to remove bureaucratic barriers because there is a war going on in Europe and you cannot treat the defense industry in the same way as, say, milk production,” said Italian Defense Minister Guido Crozeto.
Kosinjak-Kamiš announced that at the next, third, meeting of the group in Paris, the financing of the development of the European arms industry will be discussed in more detail in order to become the “driver” of the continent’s economy.
German Minister Boris Pistorius rejected Trump’s call to increase allocations to five percent of GDP, saying that such an increase in spending would “eat up” about 40 percent of the German budget.
The ministers, who listened to Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov via video link, also discussed joint projects with Ukrainian defense companies to increase weapons production.
The group of five leading European defense powers was established last year.
Source: Business diary
Photo: Pixabay
Source: bizlife.rs
