How high can EU defence spending go?

Abstract

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, military budgets in Europe have increased considerably. Despite the Treaty on European Union's prohibition on spending on operations with military or defense implications, defense spending from the EU budget and other mixed financial instruments has also increased, with new financial instruments being created. On the other hand, the EU is making extensive use of the option of financing military expenditure through mechanisms from joint extrabudgetary funds. This strategy allows flexibility in the financing of military initiatives outside of traditional budgetary constraints. In terms of credits, the EIB can also play an important role in financing defense-related projects within the EU. The current geopolitical landscape underlines the importance of European integration and the need to raise adequate funding to support the EU's military expenditures not only in order to seek to deepen its sovereignty and strategic autonomy, but also to spend more effectively, avoiding the redundancies of military spending in Europe, too much focused up to now, on the needs of each individual Member State. But there are still differences of opinion on how best to proceed collectively. Given the determination of EU leaders to continue military aid to Ukraine and the situation of that military conflict, with no signs of a solution in the short or medium term, the EU will continue searching the most appropriate financial formulae according to the circumstances.