Nuno Melo defends debt mutualization to finance rearmament
The Minister of National Defense said on Thursday that the mutualization of debt at European level may be « crucial to finance rearmament in the short term. » Nuno Melo also insisted on the need to “bureaucracy” the rules of public hiring in the sector.
« The mutualization of debt, already defended by Draghi, may be crucial to finance rearmament in the short term. In urgent contexts, this type of investment justifies resort to debt, with positive impact on GDP (through public consumption), » said the ruler,
However, the minister, who spoke at the 3rd Draghi Report Conference – Security and Defense, organized by the Eco newspaper, « its medium and long term continuity may require a restructuring of public expense, avoiding unsustainable pressures for the growing weight of debt service. »
The mutualization of the debt was one of the “three key ideas” of the report prepared by the former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi about the competitiveness of Europe that Nuno Melo highlighted in his intervention. The minister also stressed the changes in the rules of public hiring.
« We have been vocal in this theme. Defense is a sector of public consumption (less competitive), with specific rules where safety and national interest overlap with competition. We want to change rules of public hiring, reinforcing transparency and control of acts, but bureaucratizing and simplifying procedures, » he said.
The president of CDS-PP also stressed that this report « has clearly diagnosed that there is a lack of competitiveness and that Europe risks being behind in these areas, compromising the defense of our values, way of life and economic and social development. »
Melo also warned that « Europe must be led again – » Make Europe Lead Again » – in innovation, mobilizing agendas (from digital and green transition), and security. »
Nuno Melo pointed to the instability of the current international context, with the Ukraine War, China asserts itself as a “global and rival power of the United States”, a country that in turn “aligned its role in the native” and imposed rates that “threaten global growth and free trade”.
Europe, he continued, quoted by the Lusa agency, discovered « the importance of reindustrialization based on innovation » as well as the need to reinforce the European defense pillar in NATO to compensate « years of dependence on American effort. »
