The plan to create a new intergovernmental defense fund for joint arms purchases, prepared by the European think tank "Bruegel" at the request of Poland, is unlikely to gain support due to the skeptical position of some European Union countries, writes Politico, citing sources in EU diplomatic circles.
“This proposal will not gain support, there is no point in discussing it“, one of the diplomats told the publication.
Several other officials also noted that southern EU countries, whose borders are relatively far from Russia, have opposed the significant increase in defense spending. EU governments are currently deeply divided over collective security strategy and defense spending, Politico reports.
The "Bruegel" plan calls for the creation of a defense fund that would purchase weapons and distribute them, charging fees to participating countries and granting targeted loans to individual countries. One of the key features of the fund is that it would allow non-EU countries, including Britain, Ukraine and Norway, to participate.
The initiative is intended to complement the European Commission's internal plan for an 800 billion euro retooling of the EU, according to which the pact countries would borrow up to 150 billion euros. Another similar new defense initiative has been discussed with the UK by countries in northern Europe, including Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Politico added.
All of these plans to finance EU defense spending are scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of EU finance ministers, which is taking place in Warsaw on April 11-12, Politico notes.
At the same time, according to the publication, it was initially assumed that the summit would be devoted primarily to defense issues, but the trade war unleashed by US President Donald Trump will significantly distract EU countries from security issues on which the EU is not united.
“From Poland's point of view, the timing of Trump's imposition of the tariffs was unfortunate because they wanted the informal meeting to be solely about defense“, one of the sources told Politico.