On Monday, Czech President Petr Pavel received Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerová at Prague Castle to discuss the approved budget for 2026. The president told the minister that he is not satisfied with the planned amount of defense spending and thinks that NATO does not include all the items that the Czech Republic wants to recognize as part of its alliance obligations. Schiller said it after the meeting. According to her, she and Pavlo agreed that it is necessary to discuss which expenses can be counted and which cannot, informs the correspondent of TASR in Prague.
In short:
- The Czech president expressed his dissatisfaction with the planned defense expenditures of the budget
- Pavel fears that NATO will not recognize the Czech Republic with all the included defense items
- The Czech Republic also included the construction projects of the transport department among the defense expenditures
“Mr. President has made no secret of the fact that he thinks defense spending is low in terms of the commitments we have in NATO. He is not satisfied and would imagine a larger increase in this chapter,” the minister interpreted Pavlo’s words. She told the president that the government wants to focus on what the military really needs to be combat-ready and equipped.
Discussion on the defense budget
She emphasized that the cabinet does not dispute the obligation to spend two percent of GDP on defense and reminded that the ANO movement also voted for the law that enshrined it in the legal system. “But we are in a situation where healthcare, education and other departments are undervalued, we have to invest in infrastructure. We are aware of all this without a doubt, but we have a budget situation,” explained the head of the finance department, why the government of Andrej Babiš did not give more money to defense.
According to Schillerová, Pavel thinks that, based on the methodology used by NATO, not all items will be included in the defense expenditures of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic also included several construction projects of the Ministry of Transport there. The minister reminded that the previous government already came up with this. According to her, they agreed with the head of state that it would be good to make an update in the Alliance as to what should and should not be recognized in defense spending. She pointed out that the Czech Republic would be a transit country in the event of a military conflict, which is connected with the building of infrastructure.
Spending and NATO
“We have to ensure the movement of troops here, we have to have paved highways, roads, bridges, secured health care, supplies in material reserves, etc. It is also about negotiating, for example, in NATO, which expenses are countable. Because let’s look around us – Italy then includes a bridge in Sicily, etc., it leads to these various absurdities, so it would like to have some closer discussion about it debate,” Schillerová added. The President confirmed to her that, despite the reservations, he would not veto the budget.
