An agreement was concluded on a strategic vision for the defense based on 2% of GDP until 2033 and 2.5% in 2034, figures however far away from what will be decided Wednesday in The Hague between the Allies, i.e. 5% of the GDP by 2035. An evaluation will follow after the summit, it was said after a restricted ministerial committee meeting.
The government met in a limited committee on noon to grant its violins on the subject. For several days, the future NATO expenditure standard has heats up spirits within the majority. The majority agreement planned to arrive at 2% of GDP in 2029. A few weeks later, the government decided to reach these 2% from 2025 in view of the geopolitical upheavals that followed the inauguration of Donald Trump. The effort is considerable, no less than 3.7 billion euros this year in an already very rigorous budgetary context. On Wednesday, the bar will still be noted by the Allies: 3.5% of GDP in military expenditure and 1.5% in resilience expenses (infrastructure, cybersecurity, etc.) by 2035. Within the majority, both at the MR and at Vooruit and at the CD&V, the effort was deemed unrealistic and untenable.
The meeting ended around 3.30 p.m. shortly before the departure of Prime Minister Bart de Wever in The Hague. “There is an agreement on a strategic vision which will be part of a credible and realistic budgetary framework: 2% of GDP until 2033. It is an important line, which we maintain,” said the Minister of Budget, Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V). “There is also significant attention paid to European coordination. The additional efforts we provide, and there are many, will have to be done effectively in a European framework.”
The Minister of Defense, Theo Francken, however declared himself “very happy” of the result of the meeting: after the strategic plans of his predecessors of around 10 billion euros, he managed to obtain an agreement on 34 billion euros from his partners, he said … but not on the additional F-35 he wishes to acquire. An absence he minimized: out of the 34 billion, it is only a billion, he pointed out.
Increased the defense budget: “There will be no more tax,” warns Georges-Louis Bouchez
The point will not be clearly unlocked only when Vooruit has obtained its appeasements on the tax of financial gains.
“Such a heavy budgetary decision cannot be taken lightly, especially if there is no agreement in the government yet so that the strongest shoulders make their contribution to all the efforts that we ask for the population,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Frank Vandenbroucke.
