Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – According to a newspaper interview published on Saturday, the European defence commissioner stated that Spain needs to increase its defence spending to 3% of its gross domestic product, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure on European nations to enhance their military budgets.
In June, at an alliance summit, the 23 European Union members, which include Spain and are also part of NATO, are anticipated to reach an agreement to increase the defense spending target beyond the current 2% of their national output.
Why is Spain under pressure to raise defence spending?
Up to now, Spain has been the slowest NATO member to reach the 2% defense spending goal established by the transatlantic military alliance in 2014. This target is anticipated to increase to a minimum of 3% at the NATO annual summit in June in The Hague.
Andrius Kubilius informed El Pais that Spain’s new objective would be to allocate 3% of GDP for defense in order to counter the threat of Russian aggression in Europe. He emphasized that it will be the government’s responsibility “to devise a plan for increasing defense spending in the near future.” Additionally, Trump has urged NATO allies to raise their military expenditures to as much as 5%.
For months, NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged all 32 allies to boost military spending to fill essential capability gaps and maintain security across the continent against potential threats. US President Donald Trump has even called on allies to increase spending to 5% of their GDP, a level that none of them currently achieve.
How will Spain fund its defence budget increase?
On April 2, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Spain, which allocated only 1.3% of its GDP to defense in 2024—making it the lowest spender among NATO members—would reach NATO’s target of 2% by this year, significantly ahead of its earlier self-imposed deadline of 2029.
The far-left Sumar party, which is the junior partner in Spain’s coalition government with the Socialists, opposed the increase to 2%. According to Sánchez, the new investments will not impact citizens financially since the Spanish government does not anticipate any tax hikes, an increase in public debt, or reductions to the welfare state to boost the country’s defense and security spending to approximately €34 billion by 2025.
“The money will come from the post-pandemic recovery funds, from the Government’s savings thanks to economic growth, from the margin given to us by items that were included in the 2023 Budget and which are no longer needed,”
Sánchez said.
