Germany has approved €50 billion in new spending to modernise its armed forces. The funds will be used to buy equipment and clothing for soldiers, expand missile defence systems such as Arrow 3 and Patriot, and purchase additional Puma infantry fighting vehicles.
Germany’s parliament will consider spending around €50 billion on defence this week, covering major arms procurement for the Bundeswehr, including Arrow 3 and Patriot air defence systems and Puma infantry fighting vehicles.
The EU Council has endorsed Germany’s medium-term fiscal plan and activated the national escape clause, allowing limited temporary flexibility for higher defence spending under the Stability and Growth Pact. The clause permits deviation of up to 1.5% of GDP annually for four years while maintaining overall fiscal discipline.
Some 45 percent of German respondents favour spending 5 percent of GDP on defence that compared to 37 percent who oppose it, with 18 percent saying they don’t know, a poll from YouGov conducted for the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung showed.
A survey published on Monday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) found that support for increased defence spending is highest in Poland and Denmark (70 percent), followed by Britain (57 percent), Estonia (56 percent) and Portugal (54 percent).
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius outlined a plan for Germany to increase military expenditure as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.2 percentage points per year over a period of seven years.
A new NATO overview says the record €90.6B on defence expenditure, to which Berlin committed for the first time this year, corresponds to a 2.12 percent share of the forecast German GDP, and is higher than expected at the beginning of the year.
