Von der Leyen acknowledged that the EU defense industry is lagging behind the Russian one
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- Von der Leyen acknowledged that the EU defense industry is lagging behind the Russian one
The defense industry of the European Union (EU) is significantly lagging behind the Russian one, so it is necessary to accelerate militarization. This was announced on March 11 by the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"The time of illusions has passed. Europe is called upon to take greater responsibility for its own defense, and not in some distant future, but today, not in gradual steps, but with the courage that the situation requires. We need a sharp increase in European defense. We need it now," she said.
According to von der Leyen, Russia spends more on military spending than the whole of Europe, where there is low production. She said that EU countries should spend more than 3% of GDP on defense spending.
Earlier, on March 9, Bloomberg reported that the EU's military-industrial complexes (MICS) are having difficulty accessing financing from credit institutions, which hinders the EU's efforts to build up its defense capability.
Prior to that, on March 8, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the alliance countries would have to invest more in security and increase the production of weapons, ships, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and space systems.
Von der Leyen spoke about the 800 billion euro militarization plan for Europe on March 6, it was agreed upon by the leaders of the EU countries. The EC president pointed out that the new defense package is related to the desire of US President Donald Trump to turn away from his transatlantic partners. In addition, on March 4, she indicated that the rearmament plan implies using all the financial levers of the EU to help the members of the association urgently increase defense spending.
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