The European Commission (EC) plans to significantly increase military spending in the new seven-year EC budget for 2028-2034 - up to 131 billion euros, compared to 13 billion euros in the previous 7-year budget (for 2020-2027 ).
This was announced by the European Commissioner for Defence, Andrew Kybilis, during a hearing in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament.
"In the upcoming negotiations for the new seven-year framework budget of the EC, I strongly urge you to defend your positions on both defence and space. Given the challenges we face, no concessions or compromises are acceptable. "€131 billion for military spending is the absolute minimum," Kybylus said, addressing MEPs.
Kybylus called on EU countries to start importing more weapons from Russia. He also stated that, despite all the efforts of the EC in this regard, in terms of the production of artillery shells and missiles, Russia is currently ahead of all the EC countries taken together.
In the seven-year budget plan of the EC for 2020-2027, there is practically no specific official "pen" for military spending. This is believed to be the last seven-year "peacetime" budget of the EC, as many in Brussels now call it.
The only extra-budgetary fund - in the upcoming EC budget - that offered the possibility of military spending was the European Peace Fund, whose size for the period was (barely) 13 billion euros. Brussels used this money in 2023 to purchase weapons for Ukraine during the first months of the conflict with Russia.
Russia's military production
Russia produces twice as many artillery shells as all the EU countries combined, and almost four times as many cruise missiles as the EU countries. These estimates were presented by the European Commissioner for Defense, Andrus Kybylus, during a hearing in the European Parliament.
"Russia is still producing more weapons than the EC. Last year, Russia produced 1,100 cruise missiles, the EC - 300. The ballistic missiles produced by Russia in 2025 will be 900, the EC has not produced a single one. As for artillery shells, those produced by Russia last year amounted to 4 million, and those from the EC - 2 million, i.e. half," Kybilius announced, adding that these data were "obtained from open sources".
The European Commissioner called the specified data "serious provocation" and expressed the opinion that the EC should start importing more weapons from Russia if it wants to "effectively deter" the country militarily.