EU Security, Defense Policy Ineffective – European Parliament

The chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok says that the European Union is ineffectively managing its security and defense spending.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The European Union is ineffectively managing its security and defense spending, the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, said Tuesday.

“The European Union annually spends €160 billion on defense, though the results are far from satisfactory. To put it crudely, we are just spending taxpayers’ money without any tangible result,” Brok said during a session of the European Parliament.

During a NATO summit in Wales in September 2014, the alliance’s member states committed to spending a minimum of 2 percent of their GDP on defense, while those who until then had spent below this level committed to boost spending to reach the two-percent target within a decade. Twenty-two of the 28 EU member states are part of NATO.

Several countries have increased their spending on the armed forces following the Ukrainian crisis escalation. However, according to analysis by the European Leadership Network published in February, a total of six countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, continued to make cuts to their defense spending in 2015 despite their NATO commitments.

Currently, the United States provides the largest contribution to the NATO budget, covering some 75 percent of the bloc’s total expenditure.