Trump’s return to the White House has increased alarm in Europe. The US president has decided to suspend the supply of weapons to Ukraine, has stopped providing intelligence information to kyiv’s forces and has rejected US troops to participate in a mission to maintain a peace agreement that tries to negotiate with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
In this context, the first -line defenses of the continent, which lack troops, aerial defenses and ammunition, are only equipped to repel a Russian invasion for weeks, in the best case, without the intervention of the United States, as analyzed citing defense officials who asked not to be identified.
Europe depends on the United States within the framework of NATO in communications, intelligence and logistics, as well as in terms of strategic military leadership and fire power. Now, contingency plans are being prepared for the improbable scenario that the United States turns your back on the alliance and withdraw all its European troops.
To increase defense spending and finance the rearma of the continent, after the leaders of the twenty -seven gave him a green light in the face of Russian threat and the risk of American withdrawal.
The ministers will address it during their fiscal policy debate at the meeting between euro countries (Eurogroup) this Monday and, with all the partners to the table, during an informal dinner after that meeting and at a breakfast at the Tuesday twenty -seven council (ECOFIN) on Tuesday.
The plan, presented by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, less than a week ago, plans to mobilize up to 800,000 million euros in investments in defense, for the most part (up to 650,000 million) through national budgets thanks to the softening of fiscal rules so that this expense does not compute in the deficit and the countries are not exposed to a sanctioning file.
Another 150,000 million euros would arrive in loans to the states through a new instrument financed with the issuance of debt backed by the community budget, whose details must still be specified in a specific legislative proposal.
In addition to the measures contemplated in the Plan, diplomatic sources point out that ministers could discuss additional options mentioned by some states, such as the use of the European stability mechanism lines – the Eurozone rescue fund – or an Italian proposal to endorse European funds private investments.
The central part of the discussion will be, however, the proposal to activate the national exhaust clauses of the fiscal rules, which allow the European deficit and debt limits to be saved to finance investments in defense up to 1.5% of GDP.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg emphasizes that the precise data on the capacities and arsenals of Europe are kept secret, but, after bambalins, defense officials warn that, in extreme scenarios, missile inventories for aircraft in the region could begin to quickly scarce without the United States, according to some estimates.
Amory could be exhausted in a matter of days and aerial defenses could not provide sufficient coverage for land operations. Despite the three years of war that Europe has lasted, the continent still lacks basic elements such as gunpowder production capacity, so to prepare you have to buy it mainly from the United States.
“We are linked vital to the United States, there is no doubt,” the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Kestutis Budrys told the press a week ago. “It is a quite simple and easy way to deter Russia and avoid major problems.”
