EU Defense Chief Floats Joint Debt Funding Based on NATO Target
- Kubilius calls for ‘front-loading’ NATO-linked funds with debt
- Some EU allies give less than 2% of GDP to defense, NATO’s ask
Military personnel unload heavy combat equipment at the railway station near the Pabrade military base in Lithuania.
Photographer: Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The European Union’s defense chief floated a new joint borrowing mechanism for military spending as part of the bloc’s plan to seek some €500 billion ($527 billion) for security over the next decade.
Andrius Kubilius, the EU’s new defense commissioner, told European lawmakers that joint spending, to be disbursed as loans to member states, could stand in as “front-loading,” then reimbursed as members meet a North Atlantic Treaty Organization target to spend 2% of gross domestic product on defense.