BRUSSELS, October 14. /TASS/. The European Commission plans to increase the EU’s military budget more than five-fold under the next seven-year budget for 2028-2034, raising spending from 25.5 bln euros envisaged in the 2021-2027 budget to 131 bln euros, European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius said at a security conference in Brussels.
According to him, if all EU nations raise their defense spending to at least 3% of GDP by 2028 (as part of efforts to implement NATO’s plan to increase defense spending to 5% GDP by 2035), the total defense expenditures of all member states will stand at 4.2 trillion euros in 2028-2035.
The EU’s seven-year budget is yet to be approved by its members. They have until 2026 to do so, and few doubt that this will be done.
Until 2024, the European Union in fact had no military aspect, with all defense obligations falling under the purview of its member states.
However, after the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the European Commission moved to usurp defense functions, first taking over the right to make decisions on certain military projects and programs in Europe, and later unilaterally proclaiming a course towards the EU’s militarization. The process of usurping the military authority effectively concluded after the position of a European commissioner for defense was established in the Ursula von der Leyen-led European Commission in the fall of 2024 for the first time in the union’s history. Von der Leyen decided to appoint Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania to that post.
This is how the European Commission received the opportunity to control the European militarization process, even though none of the EU’s fundamental agreements grants such powers to the body.