Controversy in Germany over demands to raise the defense budget to 110 billion Euros
The German Army Commissioner for Parliamentary Affairs, Eva Hoegel, called for a rapid increase in the production capacities of arms manufacturers to enhance the armament of the army, and Hoegel said in statements to the Deutschland newspaper, on Monday, that arms manufacturers will also need for that pledges Funded by politicians, in a way that exceeds the 2024 budget.
Hoegel noted the need to simplify legal hurdles and regulations, especially those related to European public procurement law.
Hoegel also called for an increase in the defense budget by ten billion Euros, along with the fund for the army, which has a strength of 100 billion Euros.
It should be noted that Boris Pistorius from the Social Democratic Party wants to obtain an additional ten billion for defense expenditures for the 2024 budget and the budgets for the years that follow, in addition to the special fund created for the army in 2022 with a value of 100 billion Euros.
But Zaskia Eskin, head of the German Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, expressed a conservative reaction to Pistorius’ request to increase the army budget, and she said, in statements to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, that ten billion Euros is a lot of money, referring to what was agreed upon… The government coalition regarding the 2024 budget.
“We’ve created a special fund of 100 billion Euros for the Bundeswehr so that we can guarantee our national defense and defense capability at the alliance level,” Esken said.
It’s now important to authorize the Ministry of Defense’s procurement apparatus to use these funds, depending on the target… Then we will continue to talk”.
It’s noteworthy that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had announced before his country’s parliament a few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the start of a new era and allocated an exceptional amount of 100 billion Euros to modernize the army, and the Bundestag approved this.
After reluctance for years to stick to NATO funding targets, Berlin has promised to allocate more than 2% annually of its gross domestic product to its defense sector.
