The summit of the countries ended at the AIA BORN: for the 32 States of the Atlantic alliance, the new goal of military expenditure, which by 2025 will have to go up to 5% of GDP, More than double the 2% target in force in the last 10 years. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez He has strongly opposed the decision and Spain seems to have obtained an exemption to bring military spending to 3.5%, However, attracting the criticisms of the other countries of the alliance.
Italy, on the other hand, has accepted the American proposal: But, in practice, what does this increase in military spending mean for our country? Over the past few decades, also thanks to a geopolitical situation of greater stability than today, our country has slowly reduced the military investmentswhich in many cases had remained below the 2% of the GDPthe minimum threshold stipulated by NATO. In 2024 they were intended for the military sector 33.4 billion euroswith the three-year period 2021-2024 which saw an increase in 23%.
Now, however, the Italian government is bound by the new reormation agreement: bringing spending to 5% would mean allocating to defense approximately 100 billion euros per year. But the national budget is already conditioned by a large public debt, with the Deficit/GDP ratio which cannot exceed 3%, according to the provisions of the European Union rules. All this translates into possible cuts public spending, especially in sectors such as health or welfare and social policies.
What does it mean for Italy: military spending in recent years
Italian military spending has been rather fluctuating over the past decades: Europe, moreover, has often relying on the“American nuclear umbrella” and on the principle of mutual defense at the base of the Atlantic alliance, sanctioned byArticle 5. With Donald Trump To the White House, however, things have changed: the President of the United States has repeatedly reiterated that, in the event of a conflict, the US intervention in favor of Europe should not have been given for discounted. Just on the occasion of the latest born top, Trump said that the interpretation of article 5 can vary, thus remaining vague on the military protection historically guaranteed by the United States to its allies.
In general, however, Italy has never reached the target of 2% of the expenditure from 2006: the funds intended for the defense collapsed in conjunction with the global economic crises and with the pandemic from Covid-19, and then return to grow Starting from 2021 33.4 billion eurosequal to 1.6% of GDP, while in the three-year period 2021-2024 the military spending went from 28 billion to almost 34, an increase of 23%. Get to 5% of the GDPtherefore, could get the final figure for more than 100 billion euros.
How military spending will be divided
The increase in military spending at 5% of GDP has already been planned in detail: the 3.5% of the funds will be intended for classical military spending, therefore to the purchase of Equipment and ammunition and the expansion of troops; the remainder 1.5%on the other hand, will be invested in cybersicacy and technologies to protect the military apparatus (and the whole of society) from the IT attacks. In these expenses, then, the salaries and pensions of military personnel will also have to return, as well as the operations of peacekeeping international and research in the defense sector.
In any case, the armaments race decided by NATO has divided public opinion Italian: on the one hand there are those who claim that it is necessary strengthen the Italian defense (and also the European one) given the growing geopolitical instability And the new position of the United States, no longer so inclined to help the European ally. The majority of government is also of this position, with the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who used the Latin expression “you look pacem, para bellum“, Or” if you want peace, prepare the war “.
On the other hand, however, there are those who consider excessive to bring military spending to 5% of GDP, especially if we consider that Italy must already cope with a public debt massif, which in April 2025 reached the record figure of 3,063.5 billion Euro: the risk, therefore, is that to equalize the national budget, the executive is forced to carry out cuts in crucial sectors such as health or education.
