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Kamenický at Ecofin: Additional defense expenditures must not threaten our social programs

by AI | 11.Mar 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Ladislav Kamenický at the Ecofin in Brussels said that increasing defense spending must not jeopardize the drawing of the already set budget.

Slovak Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenický spoke at Ecofin about the possibility of increasing defense spending. PHOTO: TASR/Jaromír Novak

Brussels – EU Finance Ministers (Ecofin) also addressed the results of last week’s extraordinary EU summit focused on defense issues and increasing defense resources in Brussels on Tuesday. Slovakia does not want defense spending at the expense of social programs, Slovak Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenický (Smer-SD) told the TASR correspondent after the Ecofin meeting.

Kamenický pointed out that the new US administration is no longer trying to finance the defense of Europe very much, which is why Europeans are deciding to spend much larger resources on defense than before. In this context, he emphasized that for him as Minister of Finance, it is important that these expenditures are “bearable” for Slovakia and that the financing of these expenditures is enabled by exceptions from the fiscal rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.

“Today, we cannot afford to allocate resources that we need for social programs for defense. From the perspective of new rules, we want to use these funds more for dual purposes. We are talking, for example, about the construction of a hospital in Prešov, which will be used for both military and civilian purposes. We want to complete bridges so that they are passable for military equipment, but bridges and roads are also important for other people,” he described the situation.

According to him, ministers also discussed the possibility of using EU cohesion funds for defense purposes, and he reminded that Slovakia is weakly drawing on these funds. Therefore, he would welcome redirecting part of these resources to the defense sector to prevent them from falling through.

He pointed out that Slovakia has a set budget and fiscal rules, and within them, the government cannot afford to increase defense spending. Therefore, Slovakia supports the EU’s proposals that if states incur extra defense expenditures, they must not be at the expense of social programs.

“There were several opinions that if expenditures increase, it will affect the debt. I, and other ministers, said that it is not possible to increase expenditures completely unlimitedly, that it can affect ratings, and that we have to keep an eye on this,” Kamenický explained. He specified that the Slovak government will only advocate for an increase in expenditures that is appropriate and outside the current budget’s expenditure rules. (March 11)