Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – European Union leaders come together on February 3, 2025, to talk about how to strengthen the continent’s defences against Russia and how to address U.S. President Donald Trump after he decides to levy tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China.
On the grounds of a royal palace turned conference centre in Brussels, the leaders of the European Union’s 27 countries will also dine with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, including British PM Keir Starmer, Reuters reported.
The president of the European Council of EU leaders, Antonio Costa, has termed the one-day conference as a “retreat” dedicated to defence policy rather than a formal meeting, seeking an open forum without any official declaration or decisions.
What will be the future of European defense spending?
According to reports, the European Union leaders are expected to examine what military capabilities they require in the coming years, how they could be financed and how they might collaborate more through joint projects.
“Europe needs to assume greater responsibility for its own defence,” Costa stated in a letter to the leaders. “It needs to become more resilient, more efficient, more autonomous and a more reliable security and defence actor.”
The funding debate will be specifically tough, according to diplomats, as many European nations have little room in their public funding for big spending increases. Some nations, such as the Baltic countries and France, advocate joint EU borrowing to pay for defence. But Germany and the Netherlands are staunchly resisted.
Will joint European defence projects secure better collaboration?
According to some diplomats, one compromise could be to borrow to fund loans rather than grants for defence schemes. European governments have ramped up security spending in recent years, especially since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which brought fighting to the EU’s borders.
European Union leaders have stated they will need to spend even more. Trump has expressed NATO’s European members should pay 5% of GDP on defense. Last year, EU governments spent a standard of 1.9% of GDP on defence, around 326 billion euros, according to EU assessments.
Poland and the Baltic nations are among the largest defence spenders in GDP terms, with Poland leading the mass at more than 4.1%, according to NATO assessments.