The European Commission has offered to put aside €1.5 billion a year for joint defence spending in what could be the first step toward the creation of an EU army.
It said in Brussels on Wednesday (7 June) the EU should spend €500 million a year of its joint budget from 2020 onward on R&D of new military technologies, such as robotics or cyber defence.
It said it should spend a further €1 billion a year on joint procurement of high-technology items such as surveillance drones.
R&D projects would be entirely financed from the EU budget.
The joint purchases, by groups of at least three firms from at least two EU states, would see the EU pay 20 percent of the cost and the participating countries, which would own and operate the assets, pay the rest.
The creation of the so called European Defence Fund was billed as Europe’s response to “the most severe security challenges of the past 60 years” – Russian revanchism and Middle East instability.
The fund was unveiled after the new US president Donald Trump shook faith in Nato last month by refusing to stand by its Article 5 obligation on joint defence.
Nikolaj Nielsen
Andrew Rettman