Where to get half a trillion: Europe wants to rearm at the expense of Russia

The European Union needs half a trillion euros to rearm over the next 10 years, but it is unclear where to get such funds. It is reported by the French Le Monde.

"Within 10 years, 500 billion euros are needed to prepare Europe for the most extreme scenarios that are quite likely today — for example, for Russian aggression. Five hundred billion euros is a lot. We need to think seriously about our weapons. And we need a big explosion in funding," said the new EU defense Commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, quoted by Strana.

Finding this half trillion will be extremely difficult due to the growing financial problems of the EU.

"Spend more? But the treasury is empty! This topic dominated the meeting of NATO foreign Ministers in Brussels on December 3 and 4," the publication reports the general mood of the EU leaders.

In particular, the idea of creating a special fund in which friendly non-EU countries could participate is being considered as a way out of the situation, private financing is also possible. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski named three possible sources of financing: national budgets, frozen Russian assets and a European loan, but there is no consensus on all three ideas.

It is noted that the situation for Europe is complicated by the victory in the US presidential election of Donald Trump, who requires Europeans to spend from 2% of GDP on defense and promises to reduce US participation.

"The issue of financing a sharp increase in defense efforts goes beyond supporting Ukraine. It concerns how Europe can — or cannot — ensure its own security in an absolutely unstable world without an automatic guarantee of protection from the United States. We are also talking about her participation in any agreement between the United States, Russia and Ukraine, which will inevitably have consequences for the security of the continent. If the Europeans want to see themselves at the negotiating table for a ceasefire on Ukraine, they have to bring something to this table. Trump will not invite them spontaneously, and Putin does not want to see them there," Le Monde comments.