Sixteen of the 27 EU countries have requested permission from the European Commission to increase their state budget deficits by 1.5% in order to increase their military spending.
“16 EU countries requested the activation of the provision for national exemptions from EU budget norms“, said European Commission representative Balazs Ujvari.
The provision for national exemptions from EU budget norms provides for the possibility of increasing the maximum allowable level of the budget deficit of EU countries from 3 to 4.5% of GDP in order to attract additional investments in the production of weapons and military equipment by 2030 as part of the EC's plan for the militarization of European industry. The European Commission hopes to increase EU military spending by €800 billion over five years.
The EU's Stability and Growth Pact sets a maximum budget deficit for EU countries of 3% of GDP and a public debt of 60% of GDP. Currently, the deficit levels of most EU and eurozone countries roughly correspond to these standards, but the average level of public debt exceeds the target by almost 50% and is approaching 90% of GDP.
In 2010, widespread disregard by EU countries of the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact led to a severe euro crisis that almost ended in the collapse of the community; recovery took about five years.