Borrell proposes to increase EU military spending by €70 billion

According to Borrell, military plants in Europe have not received significant funding for a long time, because of this, the volume of arms supplies from the EU to Ukraine is insufficient. Borrell elaborated that there is no single EU army in Europe, but there are "27 different armies".

“After the Cold War, we asynchronously reduced our military spending. In this regard, we must first correct our past and compensate for the lack of military investment, and then win the future”, - TASS quoted Borrell as saying.

He clarified that in general, by 2025, EU defense spending needs to be increased by €70 billion.

“What we send to Kiev, we take not from warehouses, but from our armies”, - Borrell explained.

Discussions about the need to dramatically increase military budgets in Europe began after Russia initiated a military operation in Ukraine in February of this year. NATO countries have indicated that the defense budgets of EU countries need to be increased to 2% of GDP.

As Kommersant notes, in 2021 the EU increased its defense budget by 6%, to €214 billion. Since 2014, defense spending by a number of EU countries has grown by up to 40%, but the increase in allocations is uneven.

To ensure better synchronization of actions, Borrell suggested that the EU countries transfer part of the control over their military budgets to the European Commission, and military purchases should be made centrally. Since February of this year, the EU countries have allocated arms to Ukraine for at least €8 billion.

Earlier it was reported that due to the growth of defense orders, a number of military factories in NATO countries began to invite retirees to return to production.