Former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposes financing European defense spending through joint bonds. According to Juncker, Germany could participate in such European community debt to fund the necessary military buildup. He made the statement to the T-Online news portal.
“What I’m proposing now and what was done in connection with the pandemic, are targeted European bonds” Juncker said. “That should not be regulated in the German budget alleyway.” It is not possible to “pull out 200 billion euros from the federal budget” without putting other important projects at risk, he added.
Juncker criticized the current defense policy as inadequate. “The European defense budgets are too small to be taken seriously.” Europe must urgently become more independent. At present, there are “only two armies in Europe that are immediately ready for deployment and those are the French and British.”
Juncker also called for structural reforms, stating, “If we were to rationalize the procurement process in Europe, with fewer types of weapons, fewer types of tanks, fewer types of helicopters, we could save 100 billion euros per year.”
A better coordination between EU states is essential to strengthen Europe’s defense capabilities, according to Juncker. He is also aware of the difficulties in implementing this proposal, noting, “There are national inheritances that one does not want to give up. The Germans will never give up building their own tanks.