Spain wants exemption from NATO’s 5 percent defense spending target
-
A lot of knee-jerk reactions here so to provide some context:
The government will not do it because they are simply unable to. They were barely able to reach 3%. The ruling party and the PM do want to increase the spending but their minor, far-left coalition partner is against it. They would rather spend the money on social programs. The far-left party even voted to exit NATO altogether. They are simply not serious people. The PM finally managed to increase spending to 3% by using executive orders. They simply don't have a path to pass a new budget and increase the spending to 5%. So yeah, it's not the ruling party that's shortsighted, it's their progressive coalition partner who is against any spending on the military.
Spain used to have a budget of around 1% of their GDP for the military. It was so much that they actually could not spend it. Now that the budget has tripled almost overnight, they are having an internal crisis because there is no way they can use up all that money, even if they overbought 200% of supplies and overpaid for them.
Increasing military budget is useless, because the service will not improve with it, just the useless spending and inefficiency. And because of the rushed spending, I'm sure the move will increase corruption.
-
He did nationalise the electric and nuclear giant EDF, the french state did buy a majority share in Eutelsat. So it's not as clear cut a situation as it seems.
Re-nationalise. First thing he did is to cut the tax for the most wealthy and second is to ask everyone else to work longer for worst retirement pension. And it's under his presidency and government that the French economy as tanked so low. Not that the predecessor didn't have their share of the blame, though. In the end, these guys are delighted to have a fresh new excuse to push forward with austerity and ultraliberal measures and cut everything remaining of social en cultural welfare.
-
NATO allies will meet in The Hague next week and are expected to agree to significantly boost military expenditure, but Madrid is reluctant.
Spain wants a carve-out from NATO's likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week's high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague.
"Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit," Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO.
Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense in 2024. Sánchez said earlier this year that Russia didn't pose an immediate security threat to Spain.
Why so high a demand!? Even the US only spent 3.38% last year, and Poland spent 4.12%:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/nato-spending-by-country
-
Why so high a demand!? Even the US only spent 3.38% last year, and Poland spent 4.12%:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/nato-spending-by-country
Lobby work
-
NATO allies will meet in The Hague next week and are expected to agree to significantly boost military expenditure, but Madrid is reluctant.
Spain wants a carve-out from NATO's likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week's high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague.
"Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit," Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO.
Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense in 2024. Sánchez said earlier this year that Russia didn't pose an immediate security threat to Spain.
Another PIGS big L.
-
I'm not talking about Spanish workers retiring. I'm talking about English and German pensioners moving to Spain to retire. Spain and Greece have become to Florida and Arizona of Europe where they are stuck picking up the tab for people who never contributed to the local economy and are now draining it of resources. The only reason Greece meets their NATO obligations is because they are in an arms race with Turkey. It's one thing to care for your elderly parents when they start to get older. It's an entirely different matter when all of a sudden you are expected to care for some elderly couple that you have never met before.
where they are stuck picking up the tab for people who never contributed to the local economy and are now draining it of resources
Pensions in the EU are entirely different from how it works in the US. I don't know how it is there, but here it is the nation you worked in that coughs up the pension money. Additionally, from what I've heard from retirees who did move to Spain, they have to pay income tax on their pensions to the Spanish government which means that these people would actually be contributing to the state coffers similarly to someone who was working. So, in other words you have money coming in from abroad, being contributed in taxes and spent on goods & services locally, boosting the economy.
Besides, the people who can afford to move abroad for retirement usually are the wealthier sort, so not the burden you make it out to be.
-
What chicken shit reasoning they're using here.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]They don't need a reason, really. 5% of GDP is moronic, the number alone is reason enough to pass. Not 5% of the national budget. 5% of GDP. Insane.
-
NATO allies will meet in The Hague next week and are expected to agree to significantly boost military expenditure, but Madrid is reluctant.
Spain wants a carve-out from NATO's likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week's high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague.
"Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit," Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO.
Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense in 2024. Sánchez said earlier this year that Russia didn't pose an immediate security threat to Spain.
Isn't the current requirement 2%? They want to more than double their budget?
-
It's an absolutely massive amount of money. And it's not temporary while there's a war in Ukraine, it's indefinitely. All because Trump pressured the rest of NATO and wants more money going to his buddies in the weapons industry.
Even without the US, European NATO countries already spend more than Russia and China (sources from 2024 and 2025). Just how much more should it get?
All because
Trump pressured the rest of NATO and wants more moneythey signed an agreement promising to do so. -
Good, I wish NATO would disintegrate and European defence return to the competences of the European Union.
"Return"? It was never really there.
I don’t want my taxes to benefit the United States neither economically nor strategically.
The 5% are not a membership fee that goes to the US. What the US most often got out of NATO was that they defined the standards and requirements, which at some point required American IP and American products to fulfill those. But in the end, the leverage they had was their huge investment in NATO that also benefited other nations; once the American investments end, other nations will fill that void (hopefully).
Restricting such an alliance to the EU would rule out members like Canada, for example
"Return" or "go" my general message is the same. The Western Union was a precursor to the Western European Union, which existed for a bit over 50 years and was oficially fully dissolved into the EU in 2011. It predated NATO and was a fully European military alliance made for Europe by Europe. I wish we could pick up that torch. I'm of course not opposed to military cooperation with other countries (like Canada), but a mutual-defense clause that includes the US is a no go for me.
-
NATO allies will meet in The Hague next week and are expected to agree to significantly boost military expenditure, but Madrid is reluctant.
Spain wants a carve-out from NATO's likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week's high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague.
"Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit," Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO.
Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense in 2024. Sánchez said earlier this year that Russia didn't pose an immediate security threat to Spain.
(hey Portugal, this is your chance, take what you want)
-
(hey Portugal, this is your chance, take what you want)
Hehe they already got the good part
-
I think the Spanish just need to get more creative with their spending or rather the accounting of their spending.
Edit: I'm more forgiving towards Spain for not meeting their goals than other nations because they seem to actually be improving the lives of their citizens, not just austerity bullshit.
Have they tried giving more money to the ultra rich ? I heard it's good for the economy
