The war in Ukraine has shifted thinking — both among politicians and the public — on the need to spend more on defense.
MAY 23, 2024
BRUSSELS — The European public and politicians are in agreement that EU countries should do more to increase weapons production.
That’s according to the results of the latest Eurobarometer poll, obtained in advance by POLITICO Playbook, and a draft of the EU’s Strategic Agenda seen by POLITICO.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago has dramatically shifted the rhetoric around defense spending, pushing it up the agenda across the bloc — often at the expense of other policy areas like tackling climate change.
Both governments and ordinary people are responding to the war.
Eurobarometer found that 77 percent of those surveyed back a common defense and security policy among EU countries while 71 percent agree that the EU needs to reinforce its capacity to produce military equipment.
Politicians are broadly in agreement over that happening.
Among EU leaders, there’s “an overwhelming consensus on the aim to take greater responsibility for our security and defense,” according to a draft of the Strategic Agenda — a document agreed every five years that spells out the bloc’s aims.
National officials are finalizing it under the coordination of European Council President Charles Michel, and will meet again Friday. The goal is to present it to EU leaders next month.
The effort will “create an internal market for defense products and services, enhancing production capacity and fostering joint procurement.”
But ramping up arms production means increasing defense spending. European countries have been boosting spending for about a decade — since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 — but the pace has significantly accelerated thanks to pressure from former President Donald Trump and then Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
NATO says that this year two-thirds of its 32 members will meet the alliance’s goal of spending at least 2 percent of GDP on defense. Now countries like the U.K. and Poland are calling for that to go even higher.
“It’s time for the world to wake up. And that means translating this moment to concrete plans and capabilities. And that starts with laying the foundations for an alliance-wide increase in spending on our collective deterrent,” U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said this week.
The EU’s Strategic Agenda also tackles where to find the extra money to spend on defense.
The draft includes “a new defense fund for European projects” by expanding the mandate of the European Investment Bank. That’s something that EU finance ministers are already working on by tweaking the bank’s rules to make it easier to lend to defense projects.
The draft also mentions “the possibility of EU defense bonds.” However, frugal countries led by Germany aren’t keen on expanding the EU’s common borrowing.
The proposal doesn’t mention using cash from the European Stability Mechanism, which provides emergency financial aid for members of the eurozone. That’s an idea that has been floating around Brussels, but didn’t gain traction.
The change in defense thinking was driven by the war in Ukraine, and the Barometer poll, taken in April, finds overwhelming support for helping Kyiv.
Providing humanitarian aid is backed by 87 percent of those polled, 70 percent support hitting Russia with sanctions and 60 percent approve of the EU financing the purchase and supply of military equipment to Ukraine.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-new-political-consensus-we-need-to-make-more-weapons
“Providing humanitarian aid is backed by 87 percent of those polled, 70 percent support hitting Russia with sanctions and 60 percent approve of the EU financing the purchase and supply of military equipment to Ukraine.”
To illustrate this in another way, 13% do not even want humanitarian aid for Ukraine, 30% do not want mafia land to be punished even with sanctions, and 40% want to let Ukraine get defeated by mafia land. These numbers are not good. Is it widespread ignorance about the horrific dangers lurking from mafia land, a widespread desire for fascism, or just plain widespread stupidity?
I think the article reflects the fact that Europe is still in a sort of slumber about this war, not only the continent’s population but also its political leadership. Only those nations who were in Warsaw Pact or a part of the SU seem to be fully aware what it means to have mafia land win in Ukraine. Increasing arms production is still too slow and is only one aspect that must be focused on. Top priority should be to assure a victory for Ukraine.
Your numbers are true except you could probably accomodate about 15% that are straight up clueless and can’t decide who is bad and who is good.
That many can’t differentiate between good and bad? That’s not very encouraging for the human race, is it?
So after two years, this fast moving sleek organisation has come to the conclusion they need more weapons, I give up. I’m sure it’s not beyond the EU capabilities to spend $1 trillion between them. This would make sure the orcs would never try anything and create more jobs for Europeans.
The vast majority of Western Europe and its citizens are decadent free loading morons who have been enjoying a holiday from history and reality since the fall of the USSR 35 years ago. They massively cut their military budgets allowing their military industrial base to wither to dust and were able to do so by free loading on the American military paid for by American taxpayers. They have used the money saved from military spending to create grossly bloated social programs that cannot be maintained if they create an adequate military to defend themselves.
Now after 35 years and 75 years of Nato, they believe they are entitled to free load on the back of the American military forever and don’t and won’t pay what it will take to control Russia long term – at least 3% of their GDP spent each year for a decade or more on military spending. Two percent is totally inadequate to modernize their forces and they won’t even spend that for any time period because they can’t afford both fat social programs and increased military spending
I worked for a western European based global 500 company for the vast majority of my career and had to work with and socialize with western Europeans on a frequent basis. I know how many of these people think, how entitled they are, how “civilized” they think they are (only barbarians such as the US would spend so much money on something as archaic as a military) and how unwilling they are to pay the economic and noneconomic costs of defending themselves.
I can only agree with everything you said. The deplorable attitude too many Europeans have is one reason why I wouldn’t mind if the cockroach army would bypass Ukraine and instead attacked Europe. The harsh medicine called ruskie aggression and ruskie mir would bring them down to reality lickety-split.