It was to be expected. Germany, through the voice of Olaf Scholz, buried the hopes of countries like Poland, the Baltic States as well as France, regarding their proposal for the creation of a European fund intended for the acquisition of equipment of defense, to face the evolution of the Russian threat.
During a press conference at the end of the European Council, the German Chancellor became the spokesperson for the frugals, who bring together the Netherlands in particular, by opposing European funds being employees, in defense matters, outside of already existing tools to finance, exclusively, joint industrial programs and Research and Technological Development.
If the rejection of debt mutualization is a position claimed for a long time by Olaf Scholz, and more generally, by Germany, not without reason, it nevertheless seems that here, a calculation more political than budgetary, is at stake. work for Berlin which, for its part, has embarked on a historic increase in its defense investments over the last two years.
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Olaf Scholz refuses that rearmament in Europe be partially financed by mutualized debt
The statements made by Olaf Scholz, form a unique response to two recently announced initiatives. First, at the beginning of March, by France, Poland and Estonia, had jointly made a request to the European Commission, so that the European Defense Industrial Strategy (EDIS) could be supported directly by European funding, which would have made it possible to finance, with European funds, certain defense equipment programs playing a strategic role at Union level European.
Much more recently, a few days ago, Warsaw, together with Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, asked the European Union to participate in the financing of defense infrastructure what should be deployed by these countries along the Russian and Belarusian borders, to prevent, as much as possible, a Russian incursion or offensive, particularly in the now well-known Suwalki Corridor which separates Kaliningrad from Belarus.
In both cases, it was a question, for these countries, and more generally, for many countries in Eastern and Southern Europe, of implementing a strategy close to that applied during the Covid crisis, to jointly absorb the budgetary shock of national recovery policies.
Olaf Scholz's answer, unsurprisingly, was a firm and definitive “no”. No more question, for the German head of state, of recreating a mutualized debt to finance, this time, the effort to modernize the armies to face the evolution of the threat.
Berlin is betting on its financing capacities to establish itself in European defense
German opposition, and more broadly countries described as frugal, such as Austria, the Netherlands or the Scandinavian countries, to the creation of a new European investment fund fueled by mutualized debt, is not surprising, particularly when it comes to defense issues.
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