THE HAGUE, Netherlands \u2014 Germany will more than double its military spending by the turn of the decade under a new defense spending proposal approved by the government this week. <\/p>\n
In total, Germany plans to spend \u20ac649 billion ($761 billion) on the military over the coming five years. It marks a continuation of a historic shift that began with Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and led to Berlin loosening the purse strings and overhauling its approach to military might. <\/p>\n
The budget plan would see Germany hit NATO\u2019s newly increased spending target of 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2029 by ramping up defense expenditures every year. For this year, Berlin allocated \u20ac86 billion ($101 billion) to its military, equivalent to 2.4% of GDP (that number is \u20ac95 billion, $111 billion, when including aid to Ukraine). In 2029, this is expected to be \u20ac162 billion ($190 billion, including aid to Ukraine). <\/p>\n
The spending plan includes a provision of \u20ac9 billion ($10.6 billion) for Ukraine annually, as Germany continues to cement its role as a leading supporter of Kyiv in light of U.S. disinterest and potential disengagement, as well as the continued Russian onslaught along the frontline and from the air. <\/p>\n
The spending spree will be financed by a wave of borrowing totaling \u20ac400 billion ($469 billion) over the next five years. This, in turn, has been enabled by a constitutional reform that loosened Germany\u2019s notoriously stringent debt rules to allow for loans to be taken for military spending and some infrastructure projects. Germany\u2019s \u201cdebt brake\u201d provision normally limits borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.<\/p>\n
Net government borrowing will jump to \u20ac81.8 billion in 2025, up from \u20ac33.3 billion last year.<\/p>\n
A part of the funding will also come out of what\u2019s left of the \u201cspecial fund\u201d of \u20ac100 billion ($117 billion) created by the previous administration of Chancellor Scholz in the immediate aftermath of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. It will be depleted by 2027. <\/p>\n
Some members of Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s own coalition have questioned the rapid spending uptick, with a group of left-leaning Social Democrats calling percentage-based military spending targets \u201cirrational\u201d in a recently published manifesto on keeping the peace in Europe. <\/p>\n
On the flip side, the Green party has accused the government of budget \u201ctricks,\u201d arguing the plan breaks promises about dedicating special funds to additional investments rather than replacing existing spending.<\/p>\n
Merz has set out the goal of making the Bundeswehr \u201cthe strongest conventional army in Europe.\u201d The chancellor defended the increases this week, telling the Bundestag, Germany\u2019s parliament, that higher military investment serves \u201cnot to do the United States a favor \u2014 but because Russia actively threatens the freedom of the entire Euro-Atlantic area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linus H\u00f6ller is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He covers international security and military developments across the continent. Linus holds a degree in journalism, political science and international studies, and is currently pursuing a master\u2019s in nonproliferation and terrorism studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands \u2014 Germany will more than double its military spending by the turn of the decade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[5606,9057,5607,5602,2000,299,1824,34115,2821],"class_list":{"0":"post-215985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-circulated-defense-news","9":"tag-defense-spending","10":"tag-defense-news","11":"tag-dn-dnr","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-merz","16":"tag-nato"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114749933066569086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}