In the event of a conflict, European Union (EU) countries will not be able to quickly transfer troops and heavy equipment within the Union, despite billions of dollars in defense investment, Der Spiegel magazine writes, citing a special report by the European Court of Auditors.
The action plan adopted by the EU in November 2022 has failed. The European Commission (EC) did not conduct a thorough needs assessment before drawing up the plan and did not make a “robust assessment of financing“. As a result, the magazine notes, the already "rather small" The military mobility budget of EUR 1.7 billion was empty by the end of 2023. and the funding gap will continue until the end of 2027.
Furthermore, according to the European Court of Auditors, projects for EU funding were selected “even before the most urgent priorities were identified“. The document also says that the projects “were not always financed in the most strategic areas and without taking into account the overall situation”. However, as Der Spiegel highlights, there are bureaucratic obstacles.
For example, tanks will not be able to move from one EU country to another if they are heavier than permitted by local road traffic laws. In one case, as Der Spiegel points out, heavy equipment had to make a major detour on its way to another EU country, as otherwise a key bridge could have collapsed.
In December 2024 The European Defence Agency has published a report showing that EU countries spent almost EUR 280 billion on defence in 2023. In 2024, according to preliminary estimates, this amount reached EUR 326 billion.