Von der Leyen announces the beginning of the "era of rearmament" in Europe

Europe is entering the "era of rearmament." This statement was made on March 4 by the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen during a speech to reporters in Brussels.

"We live in an era of rearmament. And Europe is ready to significantly increase its defense spending as a response to the short-term need to support Ukraine, as well as in response to the long—term need to assume greater responsibility for European security," she said.

Von der Leyen shared that on the eve of the European Council summit on March 6, she wrote a letter containing a plan for the rearmament of Europe. According to her, it is dedicated to how to use all the financial levers at the disposal of the European Union (EU) to help the members of the association to quickly and significantly increase defense spending urgently and over a long period of a decade.

She noted that the plan consists of five points. The first part of it is to unblock the use of state defense financing at the national level. The second point is to provide the EU member states with €150 billion in loans for investments in defense.

The remaining parts of the plan focus on using the EU budget's capabilities, as well as on mobilizing private capital by accelerating savings and investments and through the European Investment Bank. Von der Leyen also noted that Europe is being offered incentives to decide on the use of cohesion policy programs in order to increase defense spending.

The head of the EC stressed that the European Union can mobilize about 800 billion euros in defense spending to ensure security. In addition, she clarified that Europe will continue to work closely with its NATO partners.

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After the summit in London on March 2, the head of the European Commission said href="https://iz.ru/1847734/2025-03-02/glava-ek-zaavila-o-neobhodimosti-srocnogo-vooruzenia-evropeiskih-stran"> about the need to arm European countries as soon as possible. According to her, the EC will change budget norms and financial rules to provide EU members with more opportunities to invest in the military industry.