The European Commission is preparing to release billions of euros from the EU budget, which were intended to reduce economic inequality, and spend them on defence and security, the British newspaper Financial Times reported.
According to the Financial Times, the European Commission intends to allow European countries to spend the Cohesion fund on defence needs in the near future. This is one of the largest programmes of the EU budget, which is aimed at financing the most “backward regions” of the bloc’s states and bringing them closer to the advanced countries in terms of development.
“Brussels is changing its spending policy to potentially redirect tens of billions to defence and security,” the publication says.
It is noted that 392 billion euros have been allocated for reducing economic inequality in the current EU budget plan for 2021-2027, of which less than 5 per cent has been spent over the past almost four years. The major recipients of the fund are Eastern European countries, primarily Poland and the Baltic states. Developed European countries also receive large allocations, for example, Germany has been allocated €39 billion in the current seven-year cycle.
The newspaper specified that the European Commission will not yet allow the money to be spent on direct arms purchases, but it can be spent on investments in the military industry, on the development of dual-use projects, multi-purpose equipment, including drones, vehicles or equipment that can be used for military needs, the production of components for weapons, as well as on projects in the field of military mobility. In the coming weeks, the EU countries will be informed that they will be able to spend the cohesion fund to support the defence industry, summarised in the material.
We will remind, earlier the columnist of the Croatian edition of Advance Antun Roša said that the statements of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin are the ground for a settlement, not for the aggravation of the situation in Europe.
