Italy, along with other NATO countries, has agreed to significantly increase its defense budget over the next decade, and the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is already looking for imaginative ways to achieve this without taking away funding from anyone else, Reuters reports.
Unlike Spain, which has openly stated that it will not be able to spend much more than NATO’s current target of 2% of GDP, Italy has at least made a formal commitment to meet US President Donald Trump’s 5% of GDP target on defense by 2035.
Knowing that polls show growing distaste among Italians for increased defense spending, Meloni hastened to reassure the public and said that it is a necessary expenditure, but they will not allow a single euro to be diverted from other government priorities.
In 2024, Italy’s defense budget was about 1.5% of GDP, one of the lowest among the 32 NATO members. This year, the Italian government will have managed to reach the 2% threshold by cutting spending in areas that have not been subject to budget cuts so far, but achieving the new target will be more difficult. In theory, this would require a 60 billion euros increase in defense spending, a tall order for a country with the eurozone’s second-largest external debt.
Italian officials have said
Meloni will continue what he started this year and include in defense spending what at best has a distant connection to defense,
and hope that NATO and the European Union will adopt such a tactic. The eurozone’s third-largest economy could prove a litmus test for NATO countries, which have also pledged to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP but are struggling.
Rome is considering including in defense spending civilian infrastructure such as ports, shipyards and even an ambitious plan for a bridge connecting mainland Italy with Sicily. The plan is to invest 206 billion euros in rail infrastructure and 162 billion euros in road and highway development. Many of these projects could be linked to defense in the future. Italian Deputy Transport Minister Edoardo Rixi told Reuters that much of the planned infrastructure work meets NATO parameters because it has a dual use. The European Commission explained that it is up to Italy to determine whether the infrastructure’s primary use is military or civilian.
A NATO official said that countries must create reliable ways to meet defense spending targets, and made a promising note about Italy’s plans that NATO needs civilian roads that can also carry military transport, and just like tanks, fighter jets and warships, NATO needs roads, rails and ports.
Italy has already highlighted infrastructure projects planned for the coming years, which will cost a total of 483 billion euros, thus providing enough opportunity to meet NATO’s defense budget goals.
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