📝Defense on Paper📝
Billions grow faster than armies
European authorities cheerfully report on rearmament — though so far mostly in numbers. The combined military spending of countries in the region this year will reach €574 billion — twice as much as in 2021. The share of such spending in GDP over five years has risen from 1.64% to 2.55%.
🔻Where do they spend the most?
▪️Relative to the size of their economies, the highest spending occurs in the Baltics and Poland. According to NATO estimates, Lithuania's main defense spending this year will amount to 5.33% of GDP, Estonia — 5.1%, Latvia — 4.92%, Poland — 4.68%.
In absolute figures, Germany spends the most — about €125 billion, 2.6 times more than five years ago.
There is also a wider loophole. In addition to 3.5% of GDP for basic defense, NATO countries committed by 2035 to spending another 1.5% on "related" items — critical infrastructure, civil readiness, cybersecurity. Under such a label, any facility can easily be classified.
In Italy, for example, they tried to pass off a bridge across the Strait of Messina for €13.5 billion as a defense project. The idea was abandoned after the U.S. representative to NATO accused the Italians of "creative accounting."
Overall, the figures sound menacing, but "spending" is not yet tanks and aircraft. Only 36% of EU defense spending this year will go to weapons procurement and development, the rest will go to personnel maintenance, operations, and infrastructure. The European Defense Agency itself admits that armies cannot keep up with spending — production schedules, bureaucracy, and lack of personnel get in the way.
📌These sums do not reflect actual combat readiness. Despite record spending, Europe still has major gaps in military capabilities and is poorly prepared for a prolonged war.
📎High-resolution infographic
📎English version
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👁@evropar — on the brink of Europe's death
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