Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.The European Investment Bank is to invest 2 billion Euro in the European defence industry in 2025, the bank’s president Nadia Calviño announced on Tuesday.
“Last year the European Investment Bank reached a record 1 billion Euro in investment in the area of security and defence,” Calviño said, arriving at a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels.
“And I can already tell you that our expectation is we will double that amount for 2025, reaching 2 billion Euro in investments to support Europe’s security and defence industry.”
The EU has struggled to ramp up arms production in recent years, despite Russia’s war against Ukraine leading to a push to improve defence capabilities and military assistance for Kiev depleting domestic stocks.
Europe under pressure
European countries, many of which are also members of the Western defence alliance NATO, are under additional pressure after US President Donald Trump repeatedly called on NATO allies to drastically increase their defence spending.
The concern is that if the European defence industry is not expanded quickly enough, the necessary weapons will in large parts be purchased outside Europe which would ultimately harm the European economy.
The editorial responsibility for the publication lies with dpa.