EU thinks where to get money for its rearmament, ideas multiply
EU financial ministers expressed interest in the idea of creating a fund to guarantee the overall buying of a weapon, but some recommended that the existing financing opportunities first be considered before creating new ones.
At an informal meeting in Warsaw, organized by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, they discussed an idea prepared by the Brugel Brain Trust to feed the countries with a national intergovernmental fund to borrow in international markets to provide funds for expensive military equipment.
The Fund is also planned to include the UK, as well as Norway, Canada and Ukraine.
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The fund is a way out for highly indebted countries that will be able to bring out the additional defense costs from the budgets so that they do not load them yet, violating the rules for good EU governance.
Finance Minister Andrzej Dombanski, who leads the conversations, said that France, Germany and Belgium prefer to first try to raise the money from existing financial instruments, such as the European Investment Bank, the European Defense Fund and the Planning Europe Plan before creating new ones.
The Spanish proposal
According to the re -equipment plan, the EU seeks to increase military spending by 800 billion euros over the next four years, by loosening fiscal rules for defense investment and jointly borrowing major defense projects against the EU budget to ensure the Union’s defense independence.
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Spain has proposed the establishment of a temporary special purpose company funded by EU governments and open to non -EU members, which could also issue joint European debt and have access to money in the European Stability Mechanism, the euro area rescue fund.
Ministers also agreed that EU countries bordering Russia and Belarus are more exposed to the threat of a Russian attack and should therefore take advantage of joint European efforts to strengthen the defense capabilities.
The idea of »Bogel »
Daninsky said the finalization of the package of 800 billion euros is a priority, but that most financial ministers agree that additional instruments may be needed – such as Brugel’s proposal to create a European defense mechanism.
« The reaction to Broegel’s proposal as a whole was positive. There was a recognition that » re-wearing Europe « would be approved as soon as possible and then developing things in accordance with the Broegel document, an Unnamed EU employee told Reuters.
According to Broegel, the new fund can serve to buy expensive military infrastructure and equipment that the United States now provides to its European allies.
These include systems for joint command and control, satellite intelligence and communication, the development of expensive new weapons systems such as fifth or sixth generation fighter jets, integrated weapons systems needed by many countries such as strategic air defense, strategically large -scale air transport and maritime logistics and maritime logistics, missiles and maritime logistics and maritime
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At the moment, the EU not only does not have common military forces, but also the supply of armies and arms production are highly fragmented. They have seven different types of tanks, nine types of self -propelled howitzers and seven types of infantry vehicles, which increases costs, reduces interoperability and prevents scale savings.
