Bangs for the bucks
Europe will struggle to meet its target of “defence readiness” by 2030, the EU’s institutional auditor has warned, given that surging defence spending has not been met with structural changes in how countries invest in their militaries.
Context: Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s mercurial attitude to Nato have prompted an overhaul of European defence policy, with capitals rushing to re-arm.
A report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the EU’s independent financial watchdog, warns that despite an almost 80 per cent jump in combined EU defence spending between 2020 and 2025, progress is stymied by national governments taking individual decisions and failing to co-ordinate weapons priorities and purchases.
“Capability planning in the EU largely follows a bottom-up approach, with individual countries identifying their own needs,” the ECA said. “The lack of an effective top-down EU planning process, coupled with insufficient co-ordination among different EU and national funding streams, could lead to fragmented investment, duplication or capability gaps.”
“If not implemented well, increased funding can also result in implementation risks and bottlenecks of materials, key components or skilled staff, making it difficult to use the funds,” the ECA added.
Brussels has rolled out €150bn in cheap loans for defence spending and also tweaked its rules on how countries can spend EU cash.
But analysts bemoan the dearth of cross-border defence projects and the failure to share industrial production and divide critical weapons systems across the bloc. Many governments still promote national defence monopolies to protect jobs.
“While the EU has launched several initiatives for member states to work together and pool their defence efforts . . . the goal of defence readiness by 2030 remains challenging,” said Marek Opioła, the ECA member who led the audit.