The French president, Emmanuel Macron, made the European countries strilled asking to quickly increase the expense for defense and to bring it at least 3 percent of the gross domestic product. “In the last three years, the Russians have spent 10 percent of their GDP for the defense. We must therefore prepare for what will come,” he told the newspaper Le Figarosetting a goal of about “3/3.5 percent”.
The appeal becomes even more significant after the dramatic clash between the US president, Donald Trump, and the Ukrainian one, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the White House. Washington has now made it clear that he no longer see the defense of Ukraine and Europe in general as priority, which means that now the member states of the blockade, but also the other nations of the old continent, will have to make more and more assignment only and exclusively on their own strength.
Distant goals
But the objectives set by Macron for this purpose seem difficult to achieve, if you think that only four member states of the EU and NATO spend more than 3 percent of their GDP in armaments. The truth is that for decades the Europeans have widely delegated the cost of their security to the powerful overseas ally and reduced their military expenditure, believing that the possibility of a war in the old continent was very remote. But the invasion of Ukraine by Russia by Vladimir Putin has radically changed their point of view.
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The United States, which have allocated almost 3.3 percent of the GDP for the defense in 2024, already criticized the low level of military spending of Europe from before the advent of Trump, even if not with the same vigor.
In 2024, the 23 Member States of the Union who are also NATO members collectively allocated 1.99 percent of their GDP to defense costs. This figure should climb 2.04 percent this year. At the moment only Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Greece exceed the 3 percent share, led by Warsaw, which has allocated more than 4 percent to the armaments, followed by the two Baltic states that share the border with Russia and which spend 3.43 and 3.15 percent respectively.
Greece, in fourth place, allocates just over 3 percent to its army, but most of the other European countries of NATO allocates about 2 percent of GDP, the minimum threshold required so far and which however is no longer considered sufficient. Among those who spend the most are Lithuania (2.85%) and Finland (2.41%), also close to Russia, but also Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany.
France, for its part, currently spends just over 2 percent for the defense, while Italy stops at a miserable 1.43 percent, remaining under the 2 percent threshold together with six other EU countries (Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia and Luxembourg).
The commitment to make more
In the London summit, just two days after the clash between Zelensky and Trump, the European leaders offered a strong demonstration of support to the Ukrainian president and promised to do more to help Kiev in the war against Russia. European leaders have agreed on the need to spend more on the defense, to demonstrate to Trump that the continent is able to protect itself, and the community executive is studying ways to support the effort.
“I want the commission to be given the mandate to resort to innovative funding. That is to say, both the European stability mechanism and to collect considerable sums together, both, probably initially we will need 200 billion euros to be able to invest,” said Macron.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will present his plan called Rearm Europe tomorrow (Tuesday 4 March) (re -entering Europe), which will then be discussed to the special European Council on Thursday 6 March. “We want lasting peace, but a lasting peace can only be built on force, and strength begins with the strengthening of ourselves,” said Von der Leyen.
