EU Defense Spending to Hit Record $443B in 2025
EU military spending is set to hit a fresh record of 381 billion euros ($443 billion) in 2025, as countries plough more money into warding off Russia, the bloc’s defense agency said
The 10-percent rise comes as European members of NATO have committed to massively ramp up spending under pressure from US President Donald Trump.
“Europe is spending record amounts on defense to keep our people safe, and we will not stop there,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
The European Defence Agency (EDA) said that of the money being spent this year, close to 130 billion euros ($151 billion) was being spent on investments such as new weaponry.
European countries have stepped up spending sharply since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
A 150-billion-euro ($174-billion) EU loan scheme intended to help countries ramp up defense spending has been fully subscribed, the European Commission said last week, with 19 of 27 member states applying for funds.
The SAFE plan enables member states to get cheaper loans backed by the EU’s central budget.
Numerous Western militaries and intelligence services have warned that Moscow could be ready to attack a NATO country within three to five years if the war in Ukraine ends.
But the return of Trump – who has long railed against the continent for underspending – to power this year has given Europe a fresh shove.
The mercurial US leader extracted a commitment from NATO allies to cough up 5 percent of their GDPs on security-related spending at a summit in July.
That headline figure breaks down as 3.5 percent on core defense spending and 1.5 percent on a looser range of areas such as infrastructure and cyber security.
“Meeting the new NATO target of 3.5 percent of GDP will require even more effort, spending a total of more than 630 billion euros a year,” EDA head Andre Denk said.
