EU Defense Spending to Hit Record $572 Billion in 2025

The 10 percent rise comes as European members of NATO have committed to massively ramp up spending under pressure from US President Donald Trump, AFP reported.

“Europe is spending record amounts on defense to keep our people safe, and we will not stop there,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

The European Defense Agency (EDA) said that of the money being spent in 2025, close to €130 billion was being spent on investments such as new weaponry.

European countries have stepped up spending sharply since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.

A €150 billion EU loan scheme intended to help countries ramp up defense spending has been fully subscribed, 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.

Numerous Western militaries and intelligence services have claimed that Moscow could be ready to attack a NATO country within three to five years if the war in Ukraine ends.

But the return of Trump – who has long railed against the continent for underspending – to power in 2025 has given Europe a fresh shove.

The mercurial US leader extracted a commitment from NATO allies to cough up 5 percent of their GDPs on security-related spending at a summit in July.

That headline figure breaks down as 3.5 per cent on core defense spending and 1.5 percent on a looser range of areas such as infrastructure and cyber security.

“Meeting the new Nato target of 3.5 percent of GDP will require even more effort, spending a total of more than €630 billion a year,” EDA head Andre Denk said.