Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Belgian government plans to boost defence spending by 4 billion euros in the coming months, De Tijd reported, citing Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
As reported, the boost in spending should take Belgium‘s total defence spending to 2% of its GDP this year. It is also the minimum level agreed among NATO partners.
The new De Wever’s administration had said last month it would reach these targets by 2029. Defence spending is presently approximately 1.3% of Belgian GDP, and has never achieved the 2% level before. Belgian prime minister seeks to have the higher spending in place by the NATO summit on June 24, De Tijd also reported.
How does De Wever plan to meet NATO targets?
In the start of February, 2024, Belgium’s new Prime Minister Bart De Wever offered his government’s priority to parliament, emphasizing stricter migration policies, reversing the nuclear phase-out law, and raising defence spending to meet NATO targets.
Bart De Wever repeated agendas to boost defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2029, in accordance with NATO obligations, and to 2.5% by 2034. Presently, the Belgian government allocates just 1.3% of its GDP to defence.
“As a founding member of NATO, it is our duty to do our part to protect Western society”,
Stated De Wever, following the informal EU retreat just two hours after taking oath.
Furthermore, before presenting his plan to parliament, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever stated that he wants to cool the European Union’s “regulatory fervour” to strengthen corporate competitiveness and that EU defences should remain docked within NATO.
“It would be an error to think that Europe can defend itself alone, we need to continue the NATO alliance with the U.S.,”
De Wever also said.
