ROME – As the Ukraine war grinds on, Italy is renewing its vow to meet a NATO spending target of two percent of gross domestic product but has confirmed it will delay it by four years amid a domestic political row over budgets.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday Italy would boost spending from the current 1.4 percent of GDP to hit the target by 2028, rather than the 2024 deadline NATO members agreed to meet in 2014.
By confirming the date had been pushed back, Draghi appeared to solve a row with a member of his ruling coalition, the Five Star party, which threatened to oppose a pending parliamentary vote on the matter over concerns the cash would be better used on social programs.
The spat prompted commentators to predict a possible collapse of the government, until Draghi announced 2028 was now the confirmed date, adding that 2024 had been only “an indication, not an objective.”
He said that Italy was spending “a lot less” on defense than France and the U.K., but added many NATO governments had not yet met the two percent target, with Germany spending around 1.6% GDP.
Five Star meanwhile said it will accept 2028 as the target date.
Italy’s defense spend of 1.4 percent of GDP last year totaled 28.3 billion euros ($31.3 billion), meaning the country will need to add another 12 billion euros ($13.3bn) to its budget within six years to hit two percent.
That means Italy is joining a race to spend more on defense in Europe by states fearful of Russian aggression.
The Italian government has already opted to dispatch weaponry to the Ukrainian government – a move backed by a parliamentary vote on Thursday.
Five Star’s opposition to beefed-up spending did mirror fairly widespread sentiment among Italian voters, with a poll this week showing 61 percent were against increasing spending.
Did Italians ask permission from China?
The majority of Italy’s military budget goes to personnel expenditure. Considering how other countries spend more than Italy one should ask themselves how come the end result is not vastly superior, in fact it can be inferior to Italy’s in some cases. Italy managed to make a big navy rebuild (which is still ongoing) while staying below 2%.
Italy is not a nuclear power so we don’t have massive expenses on single capabilities. Spending more on the military will mean to spend even more on personnel, because new conventional capabilities come with more personnel requirements. But military progress and improvement should go towards decreasing personnel requirements, not increasing them.
Investing in defense for Italy is a waste of money. They lose every war anyway
What is it with so many “late”, “against” etc types of news. Is our european media turning into useful idiots sowing dissent?
We all fucked up, we were all late, and we are working on turning the situation around.
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ROME – As the Ukraine war grinds on, Italy is renewing its vow to meet a NATO spending target of two percent of gross domestic product but has confirmed it will delay it by four years amid a domestic political row over budgets.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday Italy would boost spending from the current 1.4 percent of GDP to hit the target by 2028, rather than the 2024 deadline NATO members agreed to meet in 2014.
By confirming the date had been pushed back, Draghi appeared to solve a row with a member of his ruling coalition, the Five Star party, which threatened to oppose a pending parliamentary vote on the matter over concerns the cash would be better used on social programs.
The spat prompted commentators to predict a possible collapse of the government, until Draghi announced 2028 was now the confirmed date, adding that 2024 had been only “an indication, not an objective.”
He said that Italy was spending “a lot less” on defense than France and the U.K., but added many NATO governments had not yet met the two percent target, with Germany spending around 1.6% GDP.
Five Star meanwhile said it will accept 2028 as the target date.
Italy’s defense spend of 1.4 percent of GDP last year totaled 28.3 billion euros ($31.3 billion), meaning the country will need to add another 12 billion euros ($13.3bn) to its budget within six years to hit two percent.
That means Italy is joining a race to spend more on defense in Europe by states fearful of Russian aggression.
The Italian government has already opted to dispatch weaponry to the Ukrainian government – a move backed by a parliamentary vote on Thursday.
Five Star’s opposition to beefed-up spending did mirror fairly widespread sentiment among Italian voters, with a poll this week showing 61 percent were against increasing spending.
Did Italians ask permission from China?
The majority of Italy’s military budget goes to personnel expenditure. Considering how other countries spend more than Italy one should ask themselves how come the end result is not vastly superior, in fact it can be inferior to Italy’s in some cases. Italy managed to make a big navy rebuild (which is still ongoing) while staying below 2%.
Italy is not a nuclear power so we don’t have massive expenses on single capabilities. Spending more on the military will mean to spend even more on personnel, because new conventional capabilities come with more personnel requirements. But military progress and improvement should go towards decreasing personnel requirements, not increasing them.
Investing in defense for Italy is a waste of money. They lose every war anyway
What is it with so many “late”, “against” etc types of news. Is our european media turning into useful idiots sowing dissent?
We all fucked up, we were all late, and we are working on turning the situation around.
Happy to hear italy is investing more in defence.