The European Commission has received a request from 16 EU countries to increase budget deficits.

More than half of the European Union (EU) countries have requested permission from the European Commission (EC) to increase their budget deficits by 1.5% amid an increase in their own military spending. This was announced on June 3 by the representative of the EC Balash Uyvari.

"16 (out of 27) EU states have requested the activation of the provision on national exceptions from the budgetary norms of the European Union," TASS quoted Uivari as saying.

The provision on national exceptions to the EU budget norms provides for the possibility of increasing the maximum allowable level of the EU budget deficit from 3% to 4.5% of GDP in order to attract additional investments in the production of weapons and military equipment by 2030 as part of the EC plan on the militarization of European industry.

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