Newsweek pointed to Europe's dependence on the United States militarily

European countries are extremely weak militarily and depend on USA. This was reported on March 1 by the magazine Newsweek.

"Decades of curbing defense spending after the end of the Cold War allowed European countries to maintain highly valued social security systems, but also left them with gaping gaps in defense capabilities and deep dependence on the United States," the publication says.

They noted that European officials do not deny this fact and even admit that "the continent was woefully weak."

According to the newspaper, attempts by European leaders to achieve such political influence in order to significantly increase military spending are not successful.

"It is difficult to make convincing arguments in favor of increasing the budget for military needs, when this could mean spending cuts in sectors such as healthcare or further tax increases in countries," the authors of the material said.

Europe would be "very vulnerable" without US support, Ed Arnold, a senior researcher at the British Royal Institute of the United Armed Forces, told the publication.

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Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on February 19 that Europe should href="https://iz.ru/1841993/2025-02-20/premer-chekhii-fiala-vystupil-za-uvelichenie-evropeiskikh-investitcii-v-oboronu">" put "money on the table" and invest more in defense if countries want to be taken seriously.

In turn, the Financial Times newspaper reported that the European Union (EU) authorities are considering the possibility of redistributing href="https://iz.ru/1841684/2025-02-19/smi-uznali-o-planakh-es-perenapravit-sredstva-ot-borby-s-pandemiei-na-oboronu">€93 billion for defense needs of unused funds initially allocated for recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.