Washington: Ruling and opposition members of German parliament are lobbying hard for securing support of their members to approve a constitutional change that would secure a €100 billion (US $108 billion) defence fund announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in late February, days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The fund, which is meant to plug holes in equipment and ammunition, will be key to setting Germany on course for the NATO-agreed goal of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence. If approved by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, the money will go on top of annual military budgets frozen at slightly more than €50 billion annually for the next several years.
The extra spending clashes with Germany’s restrictive policies on new debt, which means a two-thirds majority is needed for an exception. All relevant parties — the governing coalition of Social Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens, plus the opposition Christian Democrats — agreed on details over the weekend, which means the proposal’s passage is considered likely.
Government officials want to see the legislative changes enacted before the summer recess begins in early July. In parallel, they are crafting acquisition wish lists prioritizing how to spend the extra money and, crucially, when.
In a letter on May 30, three prominent Social Democrats — Scholz, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht and Bundestag party chairman Rolf Mützenich — asked their members for support when the legislative changes come up for a vote.
Russia’s war on Ukraine, they argued, marks a significant shift in Europe’s security architecture. “It has shown us: Living in freedom requires military strength to protect and defend it,” they wrote.
Exactly how the government should spend the money has been a source of debate in Germany for months. The spending velocity is of particular concern, as the Defence Ministry is unequipped to translate a sudden uptick of, for example, €25 billion above the regular defence budget for a total of €75 billion per year into added capabilities. That calculation assumes spending the new fund equally over four years while reaching the NATO percentage every year, given the current economic outlook.
Party negotiators have haggled over allocation details as well as when relevant acquisitions should commence. In the end, the compromise proposal prescribes that capability gaps should be plugged with investments in “significant” and multiyear acquisition programs starting in 2022.
Christian Mölling, research director at the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relations, said Foreign Military Sales deals with the United States could offer a way to get money out of the door fast, perhaps even still this year. Berlin wants to buy 35 F-35 aircraft for the country’s nuclear-sharing mission. Also on the table is a new heavy transport helicopter program, for which US manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed Martin submitted offers.
Eastern EU member nations are turning away from Germany and France, the duo once meant to shepherd the bloc’s defence policies, in anger over those two countries’ weapons-delivery policies for Ukraine. Russia’s closer European neighbours consider the tempo too slow and the emphasis on talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as misplaced.
