The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in her speech at the Munich Security Conference stressed that “Europe needs to do more for security” and to do that it needs to increase defence spending – currently in the EU just under 2% of GDP – 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 to activate the escape clause of 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 tailored 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.

As Politico comments, “Over-indebted European countries like Italy and Greece have backed this escape clause, arguing that it would allow them to significantly increase defense spending without making any other budget cuts.”