The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has asked the countries of the European Union (EU) “courage” on Tuesday to the “difficult decisions” they must make in the coming months to increase their investment in defense.
“We have begun to mobilize the enormous resources of Europe. In the coming weeks and months it will need more courage. And other difficult decisions await us, ”said von der Leyen during a debate in the plenary of the European Parliament.
The president of the Commission has reviewed the keys to the strategy to rearm the EU that last Thursday presented to the community leaders, with which they expect about 800,000 million euros to mobilize and that includes a new financial instrument with 150,000 million for loans backed by the Budget of the Union.
The plan bet on the flexibility of the public deficit control rules so that investments in defense are excluded from that calculation, as well as the possibility of using cohesion policy programs to increase military spending.
Von der Leyen has stressed that, at present, EU countries spend somewhat less than 2% of their GDP in defense, although “all analysis agree that we need to move from 3%” and “the entire European budget only reaches 1% of our GDP.” “Thus, it is obvious that most of the new investments can only come from the Member States,” he said.
“We thought we were enjoying a peace dividend. But in reality, we only had a security deficit, ”said Von der Leyen. In that context, German politics has made it clear that “the time of illusions is over” and that Europe “is called to take over its own defense.” “Not in a distant future, but today,” he emphasized.
The community president has stressed that the EU faces a crisis of her security, but stressed that “we know it is in crises when Europe has always been built.” “So this is the moment of peace through force, it is the time for a common effort in defense,” he argued.
For his part, the president of the European Council, António Costa, has been convinced that the European Union “is already stronger” and has urged partners to achieve greater confidence and unity to face “a new geopolitical era” in which the tension is high and “the multilateral system and the international order based on standards are under high pressure.”
“The efforts we make to spend more in European defense will also benefit Ukraine. The security of Ukraine cannot be separated from Europe’s. The best security guarantee we can give is to reinforce Ukrainian self -defense and build a Europe of credible and robust defense,” he said coast before the hemicycle.
Not to mention the United States throughout his speech, the Portuguese has referred to the calls he had last Friday with “NATO related partners”, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Norway or Iceland, to explain the decisions that the heads of state and government of the EU took Thursday at their extraordinary summit in Brussels.
“We are preparing to support Ukraine for when he decides to enter negotiations, to help him achieve a complete, fair and lasting peace,” said Costa, who has advanced that at the next summit, of March 20 and 21, these issues will continue to be discussed and also deepen how to boost the competitiveness of the continent.
