Weapons surcharge: the EU has approved a plan to strengthen the union's defense
The plan for the rearmament of Europe, approved at an emergency EU summit, involves the allocation of 800 billion euros and will require a significant increase in the tax burden on the countries of the union. This was stated to Izvestia in the European Parliament. The amount is four times higher than the annual budget of the bloc, so the expert community notes that it will be extremely difficult for the heads of state to explain to the population why such sums are being invested not in the social sphere and solving economic problems, but go to the military-industrial complex and new assistance to Kiev. About the attempts of the European Union to achieve defense autonomy from the United States against the background of Washington's changed position on the conflict in Ukraine — in the Izvestia article.
EU considers rearmament project
The heads of the EU countries, in the presence of Vladimir Zelensky, agreed on an ambitious Rearm Europe plan in Brussels on March 6. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the project for the rearmament of Europe on March 4, that is, immediately after Washington announced the suspension of military assistance to Kiev. The main idea of the document is that Europe should take care of its own security, rather than relying on NATO and the United States.
For this purpose, it is proposed to allocate up to €800 billion in the coming years. The majority of the rearmament — 650 billion euros — will be donated by the member countries. To this end, EU fiscal rules will be relaxed for them, which will allow them to deviate from the established national debt limit of 3% of GDP and increase defense spending by 1.5%. The remaining €150 billion should be allocated as EU loans. The latter amount will be used to purchase pan-European defense equipment: air defense, artillery, UAVs, as well as cyber and electronic warfare equipment.
Following the summit, the EU heads of state welcomed the relaxation of EU fiscal rules, stressing "the need for further significant increases in security and defense spending." As for the mechanism for allocating a loan of €150 billion, the European Council has so far only taken note of this proposal from the European Commission and intends to consider it as a matter of urgency. 26 of the 27 European leaders, with the exception of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, also signed the EU declaration on sending military aid to Ukraine.
The EU plans to spend four times its annual budget of 200 billion euros on defense, and this will require a significant increase in the tax burden of EU countries, especially France and Germany, according to MEP Thierry Mariani.
— Today, as you know, the European Union is essentially 90-95% funded by subsidies from member states. 41% of these funds come from Germany and France. I think this is another step towards Brussels' dream of introducing a pan—European tax for all EU citizens, which, in fact, will mean the abolition of the sovereignty of individual countries," he said.
It is significant that on the eve of the summit, the head of the Fifth Republic, Emmanuel Macron, addressed the French, trying to justify why it is so important for Europe to significantly increase defense spending. As usual, the main argument was the notorious "Russian threat." According to Macron, there are no guarantees that Russia will not attack other European countries. So, he pointed to Russia's plans to increase the number of armed forces to 1.5 million people, and the number of tanks and fighters to 7 thousand and 1.5 thousand, respectively. According to Macron, in this situation, France has no choice but to launch a "strategic debate" about protecting its allies on the European continent with the help of French nuclear deterrence forces.
— The authorities and the media constantly told us that Russia was bankrupt, that it had no money to arm soldiers, and that Russia was stealing washing machines to make missiles. And now all of a sudden they tell us that Russian tanks are coming to Europe. Macron's speech is just a way to explain to the French that they will have to pay, says Thierry Mariani.
The Kremlin's reaction to the EU's plans
The Kremlin described the French president's speech as "extremely confrontational." "It can hardly be perceived as a speech by a head of state who thinks about peace. Rather, from what has been said, it can be concluded that France is thinking more about the war, about the continuation of the war," Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 6. He noted that Macron made "many inaccuracies," did not mention the expansion of NATO and Russia's legitimate concerns, forcing "it to take retaliatory measures." Responding to a question from Izvestia, Peskov clarified that France had not received any signals of readiness for contacts with the Russian Federation.
The Europeans' plans to strengthen their own security imply further pumping weapons into Ukraine. Von der Leyen does not hide the fact that her initiative will allow European countries to invest in the production of weapons in Ukraine or to purchase military equipment for shipment to Kiev. "We must continue to help Ukrainians resist until they can negotiate a lasting peace with Russia for themselves and for all of us," Macron echoes her.
Earlier, Kiev's allies announced numerous military aid packages to it. On March 2, the UK will provide Ukraine with a loan of 2.26 billion pounds for a period of 30 years for the purchase of defense materials. Earlier, London also promised to provide Kiev with a military aid package of $ 5.6 billion. Spain was going to give $1 billion, and Norway was going to give €3.5 billion. In addition, an EU financial assistance package of 3.6 billion euros is planned to be transferred to Ukraine in March.
The plan for the rearmament of Europe assumes a huge burden on the budgets of the EU countries. So the authorities of the member states have no choice but to talk about Russian aggression, Alexey Chikhachev, senior lecturer at the Department of European Studies at St. Petersburg State University, explains to Izvestia.
— Using the example of Germany, Italy and France, as well as a number of other countries, it is noticeable that the burden of defense budgets on the economy is already quite serious. In France, attempts to agree on a budget for 2025 led to the resignation of the government. Therefore, the main task is to justify such an increase in costs in the eyes of their own population and explain why such large financial investments will be made not in education, medicine or in eliminating accumulated economic problems, but in the military-industrial complex. That's why Macron's appeal to his compatriots was in such an alarmist way," he said.
It is significant that, as in the case of France, where the country's authorities tried to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution to adopt the budget, which allows approving the law bypassing the lower house of parliament, the European Commission invoked Article 122 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU, which allows approving a defense project bypassing the European Parliament. However, as Alexey Chikhachev notes, the European Parliament could not influence the decision of the European Commission in any way, given that the majority of MEPs support Ursula von der Leyen's course.
Among the MEPs opposing her plan is Diana Shoshoake from Romania.
"The EU's approach to further fomenting conflict is suicidal for the European and world peace, for the Romanian and European economy as a whole, and there is a risk that the war will escalate and turn into an unprecedented global conflagration," she said in a letter to the European Council, which was reviewed by Izvestia.
Macron's Coalition
Kiev's allies are also not abandoning the idea of deploying their peacekeeping troops on the territory of Ukraine. Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, France and Sweden have confirmed their willingness to participate in such a mission. Macron, in particular, plans to gather in Paris next week the heads of staff of countries that are ready to send their peacekeepers to Ukrainian territory after the end of the conflict.
For Moscow, the presence of a contingent of NATO countries on the territory of Ukraine remains unacceptable. "We will consider the presence of these troops on Ukrainian territory in the same way as we considered the potential presence of NATO in Ukraine, because no matter what flags this operation is covered with: the European Union, the national flags of the troop—supplying countries, whatever chevrons up to Bandera are pasted on the sleeves of the uniform, they will still be NATO troops, troops of NATO countries," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed on March 6.
As for a possible UN peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, the Slovenian permanent Mission to the organization told Izvestia that discussions on the deployment of peacekeepers on Ukrainian territory have not yet been held. Slovenia does not rule out a UN peacekeeping operation in the future. Pakistan may also consider participating in such a mission if the Security Council agrees on such a mandate, the country's permanent mission to the organization confirmed earlier to Izvestia.
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