Italy did not require the possibility of spoiling the rigorous budgetary limits of the European Union to invest in defense. To encourage military spending, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed the possibility of exceeding the 3 percent limit established by the stability pact, granting up to a further 1.5 percent of the spirror GDP, but only if the funds will be used to buy armaments.
At the moment only 16 countries out of 27 have requested to activate this ‘safeguard clause’, and Giorgia Meloni’s Italy does not appear among them. At the moment to have requested and obtained flexibility there are 15 states: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.
They also join Germany who has presented request but has not yet had the go -ahead (quite obvious), as the presentation of the national medium -term budget plan by the end of July is expected.
Defend Europe
“The flexibility foreseen by the national safeguard clause allows deviations from the maximum recommended growth of net spending up to 1.5 percent of GDP in the period from 2025 to 2028. In other words, this will translate into a rapid increase in defense expenditure, allowing these Member States to temporarily deviate from the normal tax requirements in the years to come”, explained the European commissioner to the economy, Valdis, Valdis. Dombrovskis, in the press conference to present the spring package from the European semester.
“Europe has all the advantages compared to the Russian aggressor in terms of economic weight, technology and population. With today’s positive assessments, we are taking an important step to assert these advantages by facilitating the investments necessary to reconstruct the defensive skills of Europe,” added the Latvian commissioner.
The plan for rearmament
Flexibility is one of the initiatives contained in the ‘READINESS 2030’ roadmap, the plan for the rearma of the block. In parallel, the Commission has also created the Safe (Security Action For Europe) tool, which will have 150 billion to be made available with loans at subsidized rates for the member countries that will request it.
The aim is first of all the increase in defense expenditure, especially as regards European armaments, but also to standardize as much as possible the war skills of the twenty -seven and avoid having different types of tanks, war hunting and aerial defense systems, thus approaching a common army embryo.
We then aim for the development of large -scale pan -European cooperation for the rapid transport of military troops and equipment, to increase support for Ukraine as well as to strengthen the technological and industrial basis of European defense.
