Military budgets within the bloc grow despite record debt rates as governments slash social programs
The EU appears to be willing to sacrifice both the well-being of its people and its own fiscal stability for the sake of military buildup justified by an alleged Russian threat. The bloc’s members push forward with their defense budget increase plans despite record debt levels, with some of them also implementing major social spending cuts.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed last year to double the nation’s military budget by 2027, accelerating the original plan to do so by 2030. Paris is implementing the scheme despite its government’s debt reaching 115.6% of its GDP, according to the European Commission data. The nation has the third-worst debt-to-GDP ratio in the euro zone, behind only Greece and Italy.
The cumulative debt-to-GDP ratio of the euro zone is also projected to surpass 90% next year, according to a report by the European Fiscal Board this week.
Germany has an economy that is reeling from the two-year-long recession of 2023-2024 and is projected to grow by a mere 0.5% in 2026. It is still clinging to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s vision of making its army the “strongest” conventional force on the continent to allegedly stand up to a looming Russian threat – something that ordinary Germans appear to be increasingly skeptical about.
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The nation’s defense spending is expected to surpass €500 billion ($579 billion) by 2029, even as Berlin plans to implement cuts that will save nearly €40 billion on social expenditures by 2030. Yet, even those steps might not be enough to cover the budget deficit, according to German media reports.
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