{"id":464619,"date":"2026-09-10T14:03:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/10\/bilancio-la-commissione-ue-agli-stati-non-tagliare-i-131-miliardi-per-difesa-e-spazio\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:24:15","slug":"budget-eu-commission-urges-member-states-not-to-cut-the-131-billion-euros-for-defence-and-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/10\/budget-eu-commission-urges-member-states-not-to-cut-the-131-billion-euros-for-defence-and-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget: EU Commission urges Member States not to cut the 131\u202fbillion euros for defence and space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Member States should at least safeguard funding for defence and space. Amid the ongoing debate on the next multiannual financial framework (MFF 2028\u20132034), characterised by national governments\u2019 desire to cut virtually all contributions towards the running of the Union<\/a>, a plea has emerged that sounds like a desperate appeal: to at least safeguard one area of expenditure, the one currently perceived as the most urgent.<\/p>\n

The first to put forward the policy proposal is Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Speaking at the International Space Summit in Paris<\/a>, she recalled that in the proposed joint budget of around 2 trillion euros,<\/a> “we proposed an allocation of \u20ac131 billion for defence, security and space<\/strong>“, which is “five times the amount of funds currently available.” According to von der Leyen, \u201cwe must maintain our ambition and get this across the line. Because \u2013 again \u2013 the technologies we finance today will determine our competitiveness tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 It is a clear call, though not quite as explicit as that made by the Commissioner for Defence, Andrius Kubilius<\/strong>, who, from the same podium just a few hours later, addressed the Heads of State and Government directly: \u201cI urge Member States to support our budget proposal: our security depends on it.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

Kubilius is trying to play both sides of the game, though they are interconnected: on the one hand, Russia; on the other, the completion of the single market. He stressed the threat posed by the Kremlin, and the practical demonstration provided by the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict that “war on the ground depends on space.” There is therefore an aspect of defence against immediate and future threats that strengthens the need for a new approach to space policy: \u201cWe have national systems, but they are slow and fragmented.\u201d This is a situation that the European Commission intends to remedy with its communication on a space shield, which will be presented \u201csoon\u201d, Kubilius said. <\/p>\n

The real issue to be resolved, the real question that is impossible to ignore, however, is that \u201cmoney is needed for space.<\/strong>\u201d Kubilius makes this point very clearly. This is the reason behind the call to exclude the 131 billion euros earmarked for defence from discussions on budget cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Commissioner for Defence, Andrius Kubilius, have made the same appeal to governments regarding the common budget: \u201cSupport our proposal\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":464603,"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","show_comment_section":"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":[30809],"tags":[31262,29807,29924,26656,26167,33394],"class_list":["post-464619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-andrius-kubilius-en","tag-budget-pluriennial-en","tag-space-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464619","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\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464620,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464619\/revisions\/464620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}