EU plans to significantly increase defense spending: Macron reveals details

According to the French President, unanimity will be reached among EU member states on this issue.

An extraordinary summit of EU leaders will take place on Thursday, March 6. It is expected to address the critical issue of building a European defence architecture.

“The goal of this meeting is to strengthen support for Ukraine and give the European Commission a mandate to quickly launch large-scale co-financing, because our security is at stake,” French President Emmanuel Macron told La Tribune .

In his opinion, despite the reluctance to increase funding, which has already been expressed by the “thrifty countries”, unanimity will be achieved among EU member states on this issue.

“That’s why this summit on March 6 is very important. This is huge funding, probably hundreds of billions of euros,” Macron added.

Increase in defense spending in Europe

Britain is planning its biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War. London wants to reach 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with the prospect of increasing to 3% thereafter. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced his intentions to do so.

Denmark is also talking about increasing spending. There, they want to increase defense spending to a level of more than 3% of economic output in order to counter threats from the Russian Federation. The country will spend an additional $17 billion by 2033.

(c)UNIAN 2025