European Commission To Increase Military Spending In New Budget
- 21.04.2026, 19:32
The military budget will grow tenfold.
The European Commission intends to set aside at least 131 billion euros for defense in the EU budget for 2028-2034, European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius said at a hearing in a committee of the European Parliament. The amount is an "absolute lower limit" that should not be lowered during negotiations, he said. In the budget for 2021-2027, there was no separate direct article for the purchase of weapons, and the extra-budgetary European Peace Fund (it was used for the purchase of weapons) amounted to 13 billion euros. Thus the military budget will grow tenfold.
Kubilius called on EU countries to increase arms production and to ensure that Europe produces more weapons than Russia. "If we really want to contain Russia, we have to produce more," he said. To back up his words, the European commissioner cited data on the gap in military production. According to him, last year Russia's annual output of cruise missiles amounted to 1,100, while the EU's was 300; ballistic missiles: 900 vs. 0; shells: 4 million vs. 2 million; infantry fighting vehicles: 3,500 vs. 500.
Kubilius added that the European defense industry is hampered from scaling by a lack of long-term contracts, predictability, as well as bureaucracy. He therefore called for the Defence Readiness Omnibus package, which aims to simplify the regulation of the defense industry, to be agreed as soon as possible. According to the commissioner, in some countries, defense companies have to wait four years for approval to expand production. An additional problem he called months-long delays in issuing licenses for the movement of defense products between EU countries.
The European Commissioner separately noted that Europe should prepare for the reduction of the U.S. role in defense. In this, Kubilius called it important to reduce dependence on American critical elements. We are talking about space reconnaissance, secure satellite communications, command and control systems, heavy military transport aircraft, aerial refueling and others. "We must develop and build them ourselves or procure them. Without delay," he said.