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Straits Times
25-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
'Flexible' NATO spending targets affordable for Italy, PM Meloni says
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks to the media at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco ROME - New NATO targets for higher defence and security spending are affordable for Italy as they give countries "total flexibility" on how to reach them, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Meloni said "not a single euro" would be diverted from other budget priorities to fund the planned increase in defence spending. NATO leaders backed a plan to raise overall defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035, from the current 2% goal, to heed demands from U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe pay more for its own security. Countries would have to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence - mainly troops and weapons - and 1.5% on broader defence-related measures such as cyber security, protecting pipelines and adapting roads and bridges to handle heavy military vehicles. "I am persuaded that the new targets are sustainable, there is total flexibility," Meloni said, adding no minimum annual spending increase would be required. She did not elaborate on how heavily-indebted Italy would fund the new commitments. Only 17% of Italian supporting increasing defence spending, according to a poll by the European Council of Foreign Relations, the lowest proportion among 12 European countries surveyed. Meloni said her government had no immediate intention to use an EU flexibility clause that halts disciplinary measures for countries that break the bloc's deficit rules in order to spend more on defence. "For 2026, we do not think we need to use the clause, for the years to come we will evaluate based on what the economic situation is," she said. Meloni also said she was confident the European Union and the U.S. could end a trade dispute with an agreement on reciprocal 10% tariffs. "A 10% tariff base would not be particularly impactful for our firms," she said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Euronews
23-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Europeans largely support hikes in national defence budget, poll finds
Support for increasing national defence spending appears widespread in Europe although most seem to think that becoming independent from the US when it comes to security and defence before the end of the decade is impossible, a major new survey has found. Most of the more than 16,400 respondents polled across 12 European countries by the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) stated that they are in favour of their countries upping their national defence spending with clear majorities in Poland, Denmark, the UK, Estonia, and Portugal. Pluralities in Romania (50%), Spain (46%), France (45%), Hungary (45%), Germany (47%), and Switzerland (40%) also expressed support for increased defence spending with Italy the only country polled where the majority (57%) was either "somewhat" or "strongly" opposed the idea. Yet the poll also finds that scepticism over the EU's ability to become independent from the US in terms of its defence and security over the coming five years runs high. Only in Denmark and Portugal did a majority of respondents feel optimistic about achieving independence from the US before the turn of the decade. Most respondents in France and Romania also seemed to believe it is possible (44% and 45% respectively). But most people in Poland, Estonia, and Spain thought the reverse. In Italy and Hungary, a majority of respondents (54% and 51% respectively) see EU autonomy on security and defence as "very difficult" or "practically impossible" to achieve in the next five years. Germans were meanwhile more or less evenly split on the question, with 44% thinking it possible to achieve, and 45% seeing it as difficult or rather impossible. However, support to Ukraine is not contingent on continued aid from Washington, the survey finds. Majorities or pluralities in 11 of the 12 countries polled are against the idea of Europe withdrawing its military support for Ukraine, pushing Ukraine to give up on territory occupied by Russia, or lifting economic sanctions on Russia even if the US shifts its policy across these points. The Donald Trump effect The results are driven in part by Donald Trump's return to the White House and the anti-European rhetoric he and some in his administration have used over trade and defence which has given rise to anti-American sentiment in some European countries. Still, although a majority of people in 10 countries thought Trump is damaging the relationship between the EU and the US, most are of the opinion that the relationship will be repaired once he leaves office. The survey comes a day before leaders of the 32 NATO member states gather in The Hague for their annual summit. Trump has demanded that the alliance's defence spending target be raised from its current 2% of GDP level to 5%, and cast doubt on Washington's long-term support for European security. The proposal currently on the table plans for an increase to 3.5% on core military spending, with an additional 1.5% on defence-related investments that would include infrastructure, cybersecurity and money to boost a whole-of-society approach to security. Yet Spain has poured cold water over the new target, which has to be unanimously approved by all allies, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez writing in a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last week that Madrid "cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP". "For Spain, committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU's ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defence ecosystem," Sánchez wrote in the letter that was seen by The Associated Press. The ECFR survey however notes that respondents in Spain were slightly more worried about their country not spending enough on defence, at the expense of their security than they were about spending too much on defence at the expense of other areas of public spending. The vast majority though did not pronounce themselves on the issue. In fact on this question, the 12 countries were evenly split, with Denmark, the UK, Poland, Romania, and Germany joining their Spanish counterparts and the other six countries favouring the other stance. The EU has sought to allay some of its fear with its programme to boost defence production and deployment that it hopes will prompt member states to invest €800 billion into the sector over the next four years. The plan's main financial firepower comes from allowing member states to deviate from the bloc's stringent fiscal rules provided the additional spending is poured exclusively into defence. The other pillar, called SAFE, would see the Commission provide loans to member states at preferential rates than most would if they raised the money themselves on the market. The EU executive is also allowing untapped EU funds previously earmarked for other programmes to be repurposed for defence spending. Defence should also be one of the key topics on the agenda of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
Euronews
02-03-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Ex-Swedish PM slams 'amateurish' peace talks of 'non-rules based' US
The US administration is destabilising, against the rules-based order, and its unwillingness to confront Vladimir Putin makes President Trump's attempts to broker peace 'amateurish', former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has told the BBC in an interview. 'We have an American administration that has made America a country that is destabilising, and that is clearly, explicitly against the rule-based order, clearly not respecting what we Europeans see as fundamental to our security - that is the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine - and not ready to confront Putin,' Bildt, who currently co-chairs think tank the European Council of Foreign Relations, said in the interview on Sunday. Achieving peace 'is not going to be possible unless you put pressure on Putin', Bildt said, adding: 'I don't think anyone thinks its going to be possible to bring an end to the war without putting pressure on Russia. If there's no pressure on Russia Mr Putin is going to continue.' He said that in recent weeks the US had made 'U-turns and concessions, and giving up positions', but 'Russia hasn't changed one millimetre on its demands'. 'They [Russia] continue the military offensive, they make clear that all their demands, the capitulation of Ukraine, remain on the table. To believe that to say to Mr Putin: 'Please give up,' is in my opinion amateurish,' Bildt said. Bildt gave the interview in the context of the summit taking place in London on Sunday on the future of Ukraine. More than a dozen European leaders and representatives from Canada and Turkey are also attending.
