The EU links boosting its economic competitiveness to defence investment

European Union (EU) leaders on Thursday linked the boost to the bloc’s competitiveness to increased defence investment, which they plan to multiply in the coming years through a rearmament plan that will prioritise purchases of European equipment.

“The need to invest in our defence and our competitiveness are closely linked,” say the conclusions approved during the summit of the Twenty-Seven, which focus on the urgency of improving capital markets to mobilise private financing and to lower energy prices. This link between a “strong” economy and defence was emphasised by “several leaders” during the afternoon session dedicated to the economic sphere, in which ECB President Christine Lagarde and Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe also participated, according to EU sources. The defence is thus added to decarbonisation and digitalisation as a catalyst for the boost that the Twenty-seven aspire to give to European industry and, in general, to its economy in order to compete with powers such as China or the United States in a global context of growing geopolitical rivalry.

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