Spain will meet NATO’s target of spending 2% of GDP on defence this year much earlier than previously planned (by 2029), Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday, the 22nd of April, according to Reuters.
Spain and other European countries are under pressure from the US President, who has urged NATO countries to increase military spending by up to 5%.
SPAIN SPENT ONLY 1.3% ON DEFENCE IN 2024, THE LOWEST AMONG NATO MEMBERS.
Sanchez said he would meet this target by spending an additional 10.47 billion euros on defence, focusing on increasing military spending, telecommunications, cyber security and the purchase of military equipment.
“This plan will help us reach (the target) in record time,” Sanchez said. “Spain will contribute to Europe’s defence.”
The European Commission has proposed allowing member states to increase defence spending by 1.5% of GDP a year for four years without being penalised for running up deficits and wants them to pool resources for joint defence projects.
Last week, Italy announced that it too would meet the 2% target set by NATO this year, through a series of changes to its accounts.
Sanchez said he was confident that the plan would be backed by a majority of lawmakers, but added that the plan by the Socialist minority government he leads did not need parliamentary approval as it would mainly reallocate existing funds and use budget savings without affecting taxes or the deficit.
Increasing defence spending will help to re-industrialise the Spanish economy, boost technological innovation and create jobs, he said.
Sanchez said about a third of the new spending would go on telecommunications, satellites and artificial intelligence technologies to create a “digital shield against hackers”.
Sanchez has argued that Southern European countries face different challenges to those of their Eastern European allies. He believes they should focus on border security, fighting terrorism and stopping cyber-attacks, and that money spent on these should be considered as defence spending.
EU officials have said that while cyber security will not be included in the defence list as a whole, computers bought by the military to prevent cyber attacks will be.
Some 19% of the additional spending plan will go towards modernising Spain’s defence capabilities through the production and purchase of military equipment, Sanchez said.
He said his government was reacting to rising geopolitical tensions.
“If you had asked me several years ago about my government’s investment priorities in the field of security and defence, my answer would certainly have been different from what I have just presented. But that is not because our values and objectives have changed, it is because the world has changed.”