He welcomes the proposal by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen to activate the escape clause to exempt defence spending from budgetary constraints, expressed Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a post.

The prime minister stressed that Greece has consistently supported this position for a long time, as it is a crucial step for strengthening the defence capabilities of member states and, by extension, for the collective security of Europe.

See the Prime Minister’s post:

Earlier, the Commission President, in her speech at the Munich Security Conference, stressed that “Europe must do more for security” and to achieve this she needs to increase defence spending – currently in the EU at just under 2% of GDP – to over 3% of GDP and that means hundreds of billions more investment every year.

For this reason, Ursula von der Leyen has announced that she will propose triggering the escape clause in the Stability Pact for defence investment. “This would allow member states to significantly increase their defence spending,” she said, noting that this would be done “in a controlled and conditional way.”

In addition, he said the Commission would propose a broader package of tailor-made tools to address the specific situation of each member state. He also stressed that “for a huge defence package we need a European approach to defining our investment priorities” and that this would allow for investment in defence projects of common European interest that are necessary.