EU Should Tackle Social Issues Instead of Enriching Arms Producers - EU Official

The European Commission should focus on solving social problems, such as unemployment and poverty, instead of increasing the defense spending, which would only enrich arms-producing firms, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of Subcommittee on Security and Defense Javier Couso Permuy told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed the creation of a new defense fund for military procurement and collaborative research as part of a wider EU defense strategy. The stated aim of the fund is to foster investment in research in innovative defense technologies, including electronics, encrypted software, metamaterials, and robotics. The EU member states would also be able to borrow from the fund to buy military technology and equipment for their national armies.

“Data on unemployment, social exclusion or poverty should force the Commission to work to alleviate these inequalities and this tremendous suffering instead of thinking of increasing the accounts of armaments companies,” Couso said.

On November 14, the EU member states agreed on a new plan on the European Union security and defense, which excluded the creation of an EU army. According to the European Commission, the bloc is also set to allocate up to 90 million euros ($97 million) from its budget to defense research by 2020.

The discussions on Europe's defense have become more active following the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election. During the presidential race, the politician repeatedly said that the United States should decrease the support of other NATO member states and protect only those members of the alliance, who "fulfil their obligations" to Washington.