For the United States of Donald Trump, the defense of Europe is no longer a “priority”, and therefore now the countries of the old continent will have to defend themselves. A goal on which several governments, starting from the French one, have been insisting for years, but which will not be easy to achieve.
To defend Europe without the support of the USA, an expenditure for defense around 3.5 percent of GDP may be necessary, equal to around 250 billion euros per year, and up to 300 thousand more soldiers. This was stated by a study by the Think Tank Bruegel conducted together with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
More soldiers
If Kiev were to accept a possible peace agreement reached between the USA and Russia, NATO would not be involved and the Europeans should accelerate a massive rearmament to face the new situation. European armies, including the United Kingdom, currently count 1.47 million effective but, as Studio points out, the current NATO military planning assumes that, in the event of a Russian attack in Europe, 100 thousand US soldiers already present on the continent They would quickly be reinforced by 200 thousand additional troops always from beyond Ocean, mainly battleship units.
But since Trump clarified that he did not want to take part in a possible conflict on European soil in support of his allies, the 300 thousand soldiers who will be missing must be found here, and this would mean having about 50 new European brigades available.
More weapons
From the point of view of the equipment, the study claims, Europe would need at least 1,400 tanks, 2 thousand fighting vehicles and 700 pieces of artillery, numbers that exceed the current combined skills of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy . In addition, the European production of drones should increase up to about 2 thousand long -range attack radio controlled aircraft per year, to compete with the skills of Russia.
More money
These expenditure increases should be financed “through debt in the short term”, but “funding will have to increase permanently”, say the authors, Alexandr Burilkov and Guntram B. Wolff. A solution, according to the authors, would be “to collect 125 billion euros per year for the next five years at the EU level”, while the bloc countries “would gradually undertake to increase their expenditure share not financed by the debt during that period “. In all this they will be “fundamental”, they conclude, the leadership and commitment of Germany.
