Defence lobby pushes for ‘bare minimum' €100bn arms fund in next EU budget
The European Commission will unveil the structure and the figures for its next seven-year budget due to start in 2028 on Wednesday, with the €100 billion figure repeatedly touted as the amount needed to seriously fund a rearmament drive. The €100 billion budget, including an innovation programme, a production boost fund and incentives for joint purchases, with a focus on buying local, 'represents the bare minimum for starting to rebuild Europe's defence industrial capacities after accumulating a defence investment deficit of €600 billion during the decades of the 'peace dividend'," the ASD position document reads,
Documents seen in advance of the formal budget publication by Euractiv show the Commission is planning on merging all defence industry programme with other funds aimed at boosting strategic sectors, notably in tech and those favouring EU-made products and procurement.
The €10 billion in the EU's current budget for the arms industry goes on ammo production, innovation under the European Defence Fund and procurement incentives. EU countries altogether spent €326 billion on defence in 2024 .
By way of comparison, the US Department of Defense pitched nearly three times as much for next year, a whopping $961.6 billion (€818 billion).
The first one to raise the €100 billion figure, was former Defence Commissioner Thierry Breton. Since then, his replacement, Andrius Kubilius, along with Saab CEO Micael Johansson and several Eastern European capitals have also pushed the figure. For French EPP MEP Christophe Gomart, defence should make up 5% of the next seven-year budget, which works out at roughly €91 billion. Defence could even rise to €100 billion, he told Euractiv, by reducing the EU's humanitarian aid or scaling down the bloc's diplomatic network. EU countries could also factor cohesion funds into their defence expenditure, he added.
Charles Cohen contributed to reporting.
(jp)
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