The EU will “substantially” increase its defense spending

The Heads of State and Government of the European Union have agreed this Friday raise “substantially” military spending to deal with the new security reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the informal summit held in Versailles, France, the leaders of the Twenty-seven have left in writing their commitment to “invest more and better in defense means and innovative technology”.

This agreement comes in the midst of the war in Ukraine, a crisis that puts the European security order in check and in the face of which the Twenty-seven reaffirm security solidarity, with a mention of the mutual defense clause included in the EU treaty , at the request of Sweden and Finland, which are not members of NATO.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thanked the end of the summit for the announcement by several leaders of their willingness to increase defense spending and hoped that “others will follow.”

The head of the Community Executive has warned of the need to avoid “fragmentation” in the development of security and defense of the Member States and their industry, for which she has also welcomed the commission from the European leaders for their Executive to present “to mid-May” a diagnosis of “gaps in defense investment” and ideas to fill those gaps.

In the eyes of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the reaction of the European Union have “consecrated the birth of European defence”for which it is still necessary to identify the areas of action and investment to promote its development.

With this challenge and in light of the proposals entrusted to the Community Executive, the leaders plan to meet at a new extraordinary summit focused on defense and security for which there is still no date but for which Michel and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, have pointed out that it will be in May, before the June NATO summit scheduled in Madrid.

For his part, at a press conference after the informal meeting, the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezpointed out that Spain’s perspective in terms of military spending is to reach 1.24% of GDP by 2024, in order to advance in this way in the commitments required by NATO, but far from the 2% bar requested by the military organization.

Fourth package of sanctions on Russia

On the other hand, Von der Leyen has also announced that the community bloc will decide on a fourth package of sanctions against Russia that will be detailed in the coming hours in coordination with the G7.

“We are going to apply a fourth package of sanctions that will further isolate Russia from the world economy,” said Von der Leyen at the end of the meeting of European leaders in Versailles (France), in which the President of the European Council participated. , Charles Michel, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron, for his part, has announced that “in a few hours” he will speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and has warned that there will be “massive sanctions” against Moscow if the invasion does not cease. Russian in Ukraine.