NATO members in Europe are €56 billion short of finally meeting their 2024 defense spending target.
NATO faced a lack of funding for its defense needs
As the Financial Times managed to find out, such EU countries as Italy, Spain, and Belgium cannot reach the defense spending indicators set by NATO at the level of 2% of GDP.
In addition, it is emphasized that they have one of the highest indicators of public debt and budget deficit.
According to journalists, this increases the problem of budgetary pressure to increase defense spending.
The biggest problem was faced by Germany, which during 2023 spent 14 billion euros less than it was required to in the Alliance.
Following Germany in the size of the deficit are:
11 billion euros in Spain,
10.8 billion euros in Italy,
4.6 billion euros in Belgium.
Journalists draw attention to the fact that these states were among the six EU countries whose debt exceeded 100 percent of GDP last year.
Italy also had one of the highest budget deficits in the bloc at 7.2%, and interest costs on loans will exceed 9% of government revenues this year.
It's also important to understand that countries with high debt levels and high interest costs don't have much capacity to raise new borrowing, so the only real way to do this is to cut spending elsewhere.
The problem of the imbalance of NATO funding is not the first time. The US accounted for two-thirds of NATO's €1.2 trillion in defense spending last year, more than double the €361 billion spent by EU members, Britain and Norway combined.
