The EU proposes joint purchases of weapons made in Europe

BrusselsThe European Union not only wants to increase its military power at forced marches, but also its arms industry. With this objective, Brussels presented this Wednesday the legal proposal to promote the major rearmament of the community bloc and, in turn, enhance joint arms purchases, especially from European military companies. "We must buy more European weapons, because that means strengthening Europe's defense and industrial capacity," said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Thus, the European Commission intends that all member states that want access to the 150 billion euro defense bonds must acquire weapons with at least 65% of components manufactured in the European Union. Furthermore, state governments that benefit from these loans to increase military capacity will not be able to purchase technologies from countries that pose a threat to the community, as Russia clearly is. However, purchases will be possible from third countries with which the EU has signed defense partnership agreements, such as Norway, Japan, and South Korea, which will also be able to participate in the blog's joint purchases.

On the other hand, Brussels wants to encourage member states to take advantage of these 150 billion of common EU debt, and therefore will allow arms purchases through these funds to be exempt from VAT. Along the same lines, the EU executive promises to advance up to 15% of the transfers requested by Member States to cover the most immediate needs, and they will have plenty of time to repay this money, until December 2030.

With these measures, especially the joint arms purchases, the European Commission believes the EU can purchase weapons at a better price jointly than individually, and it also gives visibility to the EU's military equipment companies. The goal, therefore, is to plug some of the gaps in the European arms industry, which is heavily dependent on the United States, and to strengthen the most critical defense sectors that the European bloc has less control over, such as the most innovative ones (cybersecurity, artificial intelligence applied to security, satellites, etc.).

Furthermore, the European Commission is opening the door to considering border control as military expenditure and allowing eurobonds to finance it, something that, for example, NATO does not currently consider. This is one of the requests that Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo had made to the Eurogroup. last week in Brussels, where he asserted that several southern European countries considered control of the Mediterranean borders—where one of the EU's main migration routes enters—to be an "essential" element of the continent.

Urgency to deviate from fiscal rules

Until now, compliance with fiscal rules was an absolute obligation for member states, but the Putin and Trump clampdown has broken another taboo in the EU. Thus, the European Commission is urging state governments to request this April that defense spending not be counted when calculating each country's deficit. Brussels' proposal is that each country can deviate up to 1.5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) from the EU's deficit ceiling of 3%. In total, Brussels estimates that this exceptional measure can mobilize some €650 billion.

On the other hand, Brussels wants to reaffirm its commitment to Ukraine and in this security plan guarantees that it will continue to support it with weapons for as long as necessary. However, it asserts that this aid is not lost and maintains that, in the future, the EU can benefit from the increase in Ukraine's military capabilities. In this regard, the European Commission is committed to accelerating the integration of the Ukrainian army with the rest of the European forces and coordinating the European bloc's military resources and needs with those of Ukraine, which is in negotiations with Brussels to join the EU.

Another legislative proposal presented by the executive branch is an omnibus law to facilitate the injection of public funds into the arms industry and boost the sector's growth more rapidly. In other words, it aims to reduce controls and bureaucratic procedures, as it has already done in other areas.agriculture and, among others, clean technology– to make access to EU aid easier and reduce the paperwork companies must go through to prove they comply with European regulations or are eligible to receive these subsidies.