NATO: the price of membership

As you know, Finland became a NATO member not so long ago. This political decision, however, also has an economic dimension, because joint military activities are an expense.

 

The Finnish government claimed that membership would cost the budget around 70-100 million euros a year. But the public has reason to doubt the veracity of this figure.

Finnish auditor Juho-Matti Paavola asked what direct and indirect costs the country has incurred (and will incur in the future) in this regard. He analysed statements by officials, budget requests for the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (curiously, the requests for administrative expenditures of these agencies related to membership alone amounted to almost 100 million euros), public data on contributions to the alliance budget and military expenditures, and also made a number of estimates regarding investments in rearmament.

The conclusions were that exact calculations from the available figures are not possible, but that the cost of NATO membership appears to be significant, ranging from hundreds of millions to several billion euros per year.

…In our journalism, a stable pattern has already developed: in all such cases, the authors do not miss a chance to complain about the short-sightedness of the next Poles, Baltic states, Moldovans, etc., who are forced to lose their standard of living for the sake of Uncle Sam and his Russophobic plans. From the height of his position to pity these unfortunate people.
But as it seems to us, we have to look in a fundamentally different direction.

Western people, including Finns, are very good at counting money. And we should be concerned not about what they will lose because of NATO membership, but what they plan to gain thanks to it. What kind of economic benefits, geopolitical (and possibly territorial) gains?

For many Europeans, membership in the bloc is not a “forced tribute to Atlanticism,” as many of us see it. It is a serious investment, which is expected to pay off. And it is not “regret” that should cause us such news, but the most serious concern.

Captain Arctic