Between tariffs and in full debate on a possible peace agreement in Ukraine, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has proposed at the Munich Security Conference (Germany) this Friday The freezing of fiscal rules to increase investment in defense of the European Union.
Specifically, he has talked about the initiative that already launched in 2020 to facilitate the measures to combat the propagation of the Covid-19 pandemic by activating the exhaust clause that collects the community regulations before exceptional cases.
“I think we are now in another period of crisis that justifies a similar approach. That is why I can announce that I propose to activate the escape clause for investments in defense,” German policy said during his speech at the Munich Security Conference (Germany).
In this sense, the president of the Community Executive recalled that the twenty -seven are currently spending in defense around 2% of GDP, going from just over 200,000 million euros before the war to more than 320,000 million in 2024, a figure that Now he wants to increase again “considerably.”
“Because moving from a little less than 2% to more than 3% will involve hundreds of thousands of more millions of investment each year, so we need a bold approach,” he said.
As explained by Von der Leyen, “this will allow the member states to substantially increase their defense expenses” in a “controlled and conditioned” way, for which it will propose a broader package of “custom tools” to address the specific situation of each One of the capitals.
This clause has already maintained the fiscal rules frozen for four years to give fiscal margin to the twenty -seven before the unforeseen public spending that the pandemia meant, which temporarily annulled the limits of 3% of deficit and 60% of debt that the Member States must meet To avoid sanctions.
On April 30, 2024, the thresholds were reactivated with the entry into force of the reform of the fiscal rules, which gives greater control to the capitals with paths adapted to the situation by country to avoid too strict fiscal efforts.
In addition, the new framework already provides for certain flexibilities for the areas that the European Commission considers priority: defense, green and digital transition and social spending.
The relaxation of fiscal rules can benefit especially countries such as Spain, which is at the tail of defense expenditure with 1.28%, well below the 2% target that in 2014 agreed to reach NATO allies, which Today only 23 of their 32 members are turned.
