According to the European Union’s defence agency, military spending will hit a fresh high of €381 billion in 2025. The 10% rise comes as EU member states in NATO have committed to massively ramp up spending under pressure from U.S. president Donald Trump.
“Europe is spending record amounts on defence to keep our people safe, and we will not stop there,” claimed EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
The European Defence Agency (EDA) described nearly €130 billion of this year’s spending as investment, including on new weaponry.
A €150 billion EU loan scheme—called the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) plan, intended to help countries ramp up defence spending—is now fully subscribed to, the European Commission said last week, with 19 of 27 member states applying for funds.
The SAFE plan enables member states to get cheaper loans backed by the EU’s central budget.
Trump’s return to power this year—after long criticizing Europe for underinvestment—has pushed NATO allies to pledge 5% of their GDP to security spending.
The headline amount consists of 3.5% for primary defence expenditures and 1.5% for additional areas such as infrastructure and cyber security. According to EDA head André Denk
Meeting the new NATO target of 3.5 percent of GDP will require even more effort, spending a total of more than 630 billion euros a year.
