Germany refuses to co-borrow to finance defense expenditures
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had rejected a proposal by European countries to finance new defense expenditures through joint borrowing.
This came at a press conference held on Friday in the Belgian capital Brussels after the European Union summit.
Scholz noted that Germany supports stronger defense cooperation among EU countries, but joint EU borrowing is not the right way to achieve that end.
“Do I accept that we issue government bonds, that is, Eurobonds, to finance armaments? My answer is no”.
He was against refinancing national defense budgets with EU finances.
Scholz pointed out that the EU already has various research and industrial funding funds to support close defense cooperation between member states and European defense industry companies.
Scholz said, “the cooperation could take place within the framework of NATO, in addition to the industrial and research funds provided by the European Union”.
