The European Union made record military spending in 2021 with a total investment of 214 billion euros, up 6 percent from the previous year, continuing the upward trend of the past seven years, the European Defense Agency’s (EDA) annual report shows.
The EDA study notes that member states increased spending by 6 percent over 2020, for the highest year-on-year growth since the EU reversed its military investment trend and began spending from 2015, once the financial crisis was over. While in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), EU countries spent 1.5 percent on military spending, the same percentage as in 2020.
Since 2014, the year in which the Member States recorded a lower investment in Defense, the increase is 52,000 million and 32 percent more and this trend will continue in the coming years with the commitments made by the EU after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
By country, 18 Member States increased spending in 2021, led by Finland with 42 percent increase, followed by Greece and Slovenia, with 33 percent and 27 percent, respectively. In absolute terms, the 4 billion increase in Italy’s military budget stands out. In contrast, eight other Member States cut their defense budgets.
The EDA assesses the evolution in military spending as «positive» and indicates that it can help to compensate for the EU’s insufficient spending on defense between 2009 and 2018. In any case, it stresses the need to also increase spending in a coordinated manner because, despite the increase in joint military projects, the bloc is far from its objectives of 35 percent of total investment.
The report points out, however, that the EU countries are increasingly spending more collaboratively, with an «appreciable increase», reaching 7.9 billion euros in joint purchases, almost double the figures of the previous year, when the Member States invested 4.1 billion collaboratively.
For the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, despite the «long road» travelled in military cooperation in Europe, «very little» is spent in a coordinated manner. He therefore called for the increase in defense spending to be accompanied by joint investments which «must become the norm».
«Spending is not enough, we have to do better, and that means doing it together. This is the only way to effectively equip the European Armed Forces for future challenges,» the former Spanish minister stressed.
