Brussels – Defense, the great unknown. From an industrial and policy perspective, Europe is significantly lagging. The European Parliament’s research service uses a comparison that is as simple as it is telling to highlight the challenge for the EU. “US-based Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, generates almost as much revenue (around €60 billion) as the entire EU defense industry sector (estimated at around €70 billion).”This situation requires immediate action, and it is no coincidence that the defense dossier is part of the 10 priorities to look at in 2025.
A single company, no matter how large, produces as much as all European companies in the sector. A divide that EU national governments themselves fuel. According to analysts of the European Parliament, between February 2022 and June 2023, after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, “78 percent of acquisitions of defense equipment by EU Member States came from outside the EU, with the US accounting for 63 percent of this total.“
The EU is falling behind and not doing much to catch up — this is the stark summary that the working paper for MEPs outlines. However, things are already moving forward. Pending consolidated figures estimates indicate that by the end of 2024, the 27 member states will reach a combined defense budget (i.e., spending and investment) of €326 billion, representing an increase of about €108 billion or 50 percent from 2021 spending. It means “significantly more defense investment than in previous decades.”
New momentum is needed. Brussels is well aware of this, and Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has already started the work of moral suasion to raise 200 billion of additional resources. The political and financial persuasion campaign is all the more crucial given the reluctance of the usual players to embrace forms of common debt to stimulate a sector that has become increasingly central to the twelve-star agenda.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
