The European Union cannot decouple from the United States

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called for higher defence budgets during discussions with MEPs.

Corina Cristea, 14.01.2025, 13:50

In his first appearance in the European Parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committees, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Europe cannot afford to decouple from the United States in the area of defence. He told MEPs that the US is currently covering around 60% of NATO spending and that without the US, Europeans would have to raise their defence spending four times. In that case, defence security would only be achieved in the next 10-15 years, Rutte said, before suggesting that arms purchase and delivery procedures should be simplified.

He urged Europeans to allocate more to defence spending. 2% of GDP is too little given the war in Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General pointed out, adding that security is the most important thing to preserve what European democracy has achieved so far. He proposed that the hybrid attacks we’ve seen in the last 15 years should be considered a “destabilisation campaign” by Russia, which has been attacking Europe in different ways:

“Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on. At the same time, Russia’s is accelerating its destabilisation campaign against our own countries, with cyber attacks, with assassination attempts, acts of sabotage and more. We used to call this hybrid; I’m trying to get rid of that word, hybrid, I would call it destabilisation campaign. And Russia is not alone, it has China, North Korea and Iran, by its side. Meanwhile, many other dangers persist, from terrorism, nuclear proliferation, disinformation, and, of course, climate change. NATO allies have certainly increased defence spending, two thirds are now spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. And that’s good, and we very much welcome their efforts, but to be honest, 2% is not nearly enough. Our industry is still too small, it is too fragmented and, to be honest, it is too slow. I welcome and support that the EU is now redoubling efforts to remedy this by enhancing our defence industrial base and, with the European defence industry programme, we have opportunity to bolster our shared security.”

At the moment, only 23 of NATO’s 32 member states are meeting the targeted defence spending of 2% of GDP, with Romania being one of the former. The new US president elect Donald Trump asked NATO member states from Europe to boost their defence budgets to at least 5% of GDP per year, a target seen, however, as unrealistic in the European Union. A possible decision to raise this target is expected at the next NATO summit to be held in The Hague in June this year.