Von der Leyen needs to explode the locking of navy spending in Europe | EUROtoday
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DEvant the necessity to defend itself with out the American umbrella, the president of the European Commission proposes to unlock European budgetary treaties to permit member states to extend their navy spending with out taking into consideration the three %mark. Ursula von der Leyen selected the Munich safety convention, an unmissable assembly of Western decision-makers, to unveil this initiative, notably claimed by President Macron in an interview with Financial Timesthe night time earlier than.
In Brussels language, we converse of ” The Escape Clause », A clause already implemented at the time of the COVVI-19 pandemic, which had enabled the member states to support companies and households with state help. This announcement comes in a tense geopolitical context, while the United States presses Europeans to take care of its own defense.
European safeguards
The outbreak of the “exhaust clause” pursues a clear objective: to bring European military spending from 2 % to more than 3 % of GDP, ie “a whole lot of billions” euros in additional investments each year, specifies the president the commission. EU defense expenses have already gone from 200 billion euros before the Ukraine War to 320 billion last year.
However, Ursula von der Leyen does not intend to give the Member States a blank. The system will be “managed and conditional”. Investments must be part of “protection initiatives of widespread European curiosity”. A way of avoiding the scattering of efforts and guaranteeing truly strategic coherence at the continent’s scale.
Contradictory declarations of Trump advisers
However, the Commission cannot help but lay up standards through a “device bundle” adapted to the specific situation of each country. It will validate military spending taking into account both the current level of military expenditure of the Member State and its budgetary situation. A crucial point while defense differences remain considerable within the EU between Poland, which approaches 5 % of the GDP devoted to defense, and Italy, which stagnates around 1.5 % GDP.
The recent statements by US officials have rekindled the concerns of Europeans. But we get lost a bit. Donald Trump intends to negotiate peace in Ukraine directly with Vladimir Putin. He says he knows him well and has confidence in him. The presence of Ukraine around the table remains uncertain. At NATO, its defense secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed Ukraine’s membership on Wednesday, but another Trump advisor John Coale, Deputy Ambassador of President Donald Trump in Ukraine, contradicted it Thursday by affirming that Ukraine’s membership of NATO is “all the time on the desk” … In truth, only Donald Trump will decide, when he wants and by changing his mind.
Faster membership from Ukraine to the EU?
To uncover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
Always devoted to her Atlanticism, Ursula von der Leyen tried to “listen to the substance” of American remarks slightly than yield to “indignation”. It retains from all this that Europe should put together to imagine its personal protection extra. This can be what France has been to repeat for a really very long time. It have to be believed that the scope of American remarks has a totally totally different weight than the thousand and one discourse of French leaders on the necessity for European strategic autonomy.
In addition, Ursula von der Leyen calls to “accelerate Ukraine’s membership in the European Union”. So far, the membership course of continues to be primarily based on the “clean merits” of candidate international locations to meet the standards of Copenhagen, with out the potential of pass-right.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/von-der-leyen-veut-faire-sauter-le-verrouillage-des-depenses-militaires-en-europe-14-02-2025-2582427_24.php