{"id":419118,"date":"2025-02-18T19:26:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T18:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/18\/difesa-spagna-sanchez-2-punti-pil-nato\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T19:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T18:57:14","slug":"sanchez-challenges-trump-on-defense-spending-we-will-reach-2-per-cent-in-2029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/18\/sanchez-challenges-trump-on-defense-spending-we-will-reach-2-per-cent-in-2029\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e1nchez “challenges” Trump on defense spending: “We will reach 2 per cent in 2029”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Even before he entered the Oval Office,\u00a0<\/span>Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0had begun pressuring NATO’s European allies\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>increase their defence spending considerably<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The Twenty-Seven seem intent\u00a0on following this indication<\/strong>, frightened by the impression that Washington wants to disengage from the Old Continent, leaving it vulnerable to potential Russian aggression. But one EU state is resisting, practically alone, against the arms race:\u00a0Spain<\/strong> of Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Madrid executive, led by a centre-left coalition between the Partido Socialista (PSOE)<\/strong> of Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong> and Sumar<\/strong> (a platform that brings together several formations of the radical left), confirmed its intention<\/a> to keep the spending pledges made when forming the government<\/strong>.\u00a0That is, to allocate 1.32 per cent of GDP to defence this year and\u00a0<\/span>reach the 2 per cent target<\/strong>\u00a0(<\/span>set by NATO in 2014<\/strong>, after Russia’s unilateral annexation of Crimea)\u00a0<\/span>by 2029<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Iberian country is one of eight members of the alliance that have not yet hit the 2 per cent target<\/strong>.\u00a0According to NATO’s estimates<\/a>\u00a0(which go back to last summer but should be updated next month), the others are\u00a0Belgium<\/strong>,\u00a0Canada<\/strong>,\u00a0Croatia<\/strong>,\u00a0Italy<\/strong>,\u00a0Luxembourg<\/strong>,\u00a0Portugal,<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Slovenia<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0In fact, it spends the least: projections for 2024 speak of 1.28 per cent<\/strong> of gross domestic product going to defence.\u00a0The<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0actual figure could be even lower<\/strong>, as the Spanish economy grew by a remarkable 3.2 per cent<\/a> in the year just ended, bouncing to first place in the OECD<\/strong> area.<\/p>\n

\"NATO<\/a>
PETE HEGSETH U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY, MARK RUTTE NATO SECRETARY GENERAL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In financial terms, for Madrid, it is a matter of going from the \u20ac17.5 billion<\/strong> allocated in 2024 to more than \u20ac36.5 billion over the next five years<\/strong>, focusing mainly on increased investment. The roadmap calls for nearly 21.2 billion in 2025 (touching precisely 1.32 per cent of the gross domestic product), then 24.7 billion in 2026 (1.49 per cent of GDP), then 28.4 billion in 2027 (1.66 per cent), surpassing 32.3 billion in 2028 (1.83 per cent) to finally stand at 36.5 billion in 2029. In short, a pace of about 4 billion a year<\/strong>. Far from peanuts.<\/p>\n

However, as has become clear in recent months,\u00a0<\/span>2 per cent is no longer enough<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0has been repeating this since the election campaign. The new Pentagon chief,\u00a0Pete Hegseth,<\/strong>\u00a0reiterated it, and\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0Mark Rutte<\/strong>, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance,\u00a0stated it<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>shortly after taking office.<\/span>\u00a0From Munich, the chairwoman of the EU executive\u00a0<\/span>Ursula von der Leyen,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>opened to the possibility\u00a0<\/a>of\u00a0<\/span>uncoupling defence investment<\/strong>\u00a0from the constraints of the\u00a0<\/span>Stability Pact<\/strong>\u00a0by activating the safeguard clause, and the EU High Representative\u00a0<\/span>Kaja Kallas<\/strong>\u00a0also supports a greater commitment of member states to defence.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the time being,\u00a0<\/span>there is still no officially agreed figure<\/strong>\u00a0(it could happen at the next NATO summit scheduled for late June in The Hague), but as much as 5 per cent has already been put on the table by the U.S. administration.<\/span>\u00a0A more than double increase, the latter, which would be difficult for many organisation members<\/strong>\u00a0to sustain (Washington spent less than 3.4 last year, Warsaw more than 4.1). Rutte urged allies still below the 2 per cent threshold to hurry to reach it “by summer”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Spanish government insists that Trump’s ranting aside,\u00a0<\/span>the only currently binding commitment is the 2 per cent<\/strong>\u2014which, they point out, became such only at the Madrid summit in 2022, whereas in 2014, it was a recommendation\u2014and, therefore, that is\u00a0<\/span>the target between now and 2029<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0“Spain, as a serious, reliable and responsible ally<\/strong>, knows perfectly well what it has to do and does not need to take lessons from anyone,” cut short the Defense Minister, Socialist Margarita Robles<\/strong>, meeting in Brussels with the Twenty-Seven counterparts last week.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the Munich Security Conference, February 14, 2025 (photo: Kerstin Joensson\/European Union)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As expected,\u00a0the PSOE line was criticized<\/strong>\u00a0by government allies and the opposition.\u00a0Pablo Bustinduy<\/strong>, the minister of Social Rights in the Sumar quota, warned about “insane military spending<\/strong>.” Sumar\u00a0and\u00a0Podemos<\/strong>,\u00a0former executive partners who now\u00a0provide<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0outside support<\/strong>, have regularly\u00a0opposed sending war materiel to Ukraine<\/strong>, particularly Leopard tanks.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, the leader of the\u00a0Partido Popular\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(PP)<\/strong>,\u00a0Alberto N\u00fanez Feij\u00f3o<\/strong>,\u00a0criticised the S\u00e1nchez government<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0spending too little on defence<\/strong>, making Spain\u00a0an “unreliable”<\/strong>\u00a0partner within the Atlantic Alliance and putting Madrid in a\u00a0weak position in relations with Washington<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are all criticisms S\u00e1nchez’s minority executive<\/strong> will have to consider in parliament since the Cortes<\/strong> still have to pass the Budget Law for 2025<\/strong>. If it does not pass, programs already underway in defence would go ahead, but new investments would be frozen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Spanish government has let it be known that it will meet the budget commitments agreed to in NATO in 2014 (and made binding in 2022) but will not go any further. But from Washington to Brussels, there is already talk of allocating 3 or even 5 per cent of GDP to the military sector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":419108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[27336,26411,28892,30515,26329,27709,28891,26870],"class_list":["post-419118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-sumar-en","tag-nato-en-8","tag-mark-rule-one","tag-pedro-sanchez-en","tag-onpsoe","tag-spain-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419126,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419118\/revisions\/419126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}