Post by Brussels Institute for Geopolitics

🛡️💶 As the Ukraine war enters its fifth year amid growing uncertainty about the US security umbrella, the EU is under pressure to step up defence spending. Until now, the Union has sought to cover its defence expenditure with ad-hoc arrangements: piecemeal off-budget funds, temporary instruments in support of the defence industry, and ‘one-off’ exceptions to fiscal rules drawn up in a distinctly different era. But the Commission’s proposals for the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework reveal a more strategic approach to defence spending in the making. The Commission not only proposes to spend more money on defence. It also seeks to use the EU budget with greater flexibility, through increased options for shifting financial resources between spending programmes and a higher share of unallocated funds. But a more nimble use of the EU’s regular budget won’t foot the bill for Europe’s defence needs alone. 💡 As the world rapidly becomes more dangerous, and with member states struggling to fund their budgets at home, cracks are showing in the EU’s last fiscal taboo – a permanent common borrowing capacity. Just as Alexander Hamilton once federalized the United States by converting the crippling debts of the former colonies into joint obligations of the Republic, Europe may now be facing its own ‘Hamiltonian moment’ – a turning point fraught with deep sensitivities, practical dilemmas and constitutional stumbling blocks which will demand strategic political leadership. 📖 In a new BIG Report, our Fellow for European Constitutional Politics Vestert Borger takes stock of the financial mechanisms, budgetary politics and hard choices behind the existential challenge of our time – defending Europe. 🔗 Read the Report: https://lnkd.in/etCavi-K #EU #MFF #Defence #Military #StrategicAutonomy #Ukraine