18 countries apply for EU billions as Europe seeks to provide for its own security without the U.S.
- Share via
BRUSSELS — Eighteen European Union countries have applied for billions of dollars from a new defense fund aimed at helping Europe provide for its own security, the bloc’s executive branch said Wednesday, with Poland seeking more than a third of the money.
The Security Action for Europe fund is a $173-billion program of cheap loans that member countries, Ukraine and outsiders with an EU security agreement, such as Britain, can use to buy military equipment together.
The fund was launched after the Trump administration signaled that Europe is no longer a U.S. security priority. It’s for buying key equipment, including air and missile defense systems, artillery, ammunition, drones and “strategic enablers” such as air-to-air refueling.
The European Commission said that Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain had applied for money so far.
U.S. allies have spent billions of dollars more on defense since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
They have requested at least $147 billion in total, it said.
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Tuesday that his government has identified defense projects worth around $52 billion, but that the amount it receives will depend on how the commission allocates funds.
Countries using the fund are urged to buy much of their military equipment in Europe, working mostly with European suppliers — in some cases with EU help to cut prices and speed up orders.
Earlier this month, 15 EU countries were also permitted to use a “national escape clause” to allow them to spend more on defense without breaking the bloc’s debt rules.
U.S. allies in Europe are convinced that President Vladimir Putin could target one of them if Russia wins its war on Ukraine. The SAFE fund and budget leniency are aimed at preparing Europe to defend itself from attack by the end of the decade, but even EU governments concede that this is an ambitious target.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
Kim, an attorney and former San Francisco supervisor, is running against State Sen. Benjamin Allen for the role of running California’s long-beleaguered Department of Insurance. In this episode she talks to Rebuilding L.A. host Kate Cagle about why she should get the job.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.” At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog.
