MNI BRIEF: EU: "More Will Come" To Boost Defence
MNI (LONDON) - There is "more will come" in terms of increased EU defence spending and investment, in addition to the measures announced by the Commission on Tuesday, a senior EU official said.
Noting the new financing measures for defence and infrastructure announced by the German government on Tuesday, the official told reporters that it showed that "a page has been turned", with a possibility additional options could be outlined in the Defence White Paper due to be published on March 19.
The Commission's plan for a new "up to" EUR150bn instrument has drawn some criticism for being loan rather than grant based, with some some EU sources pointing out that only a small number of countries currently have borrowing rates meaningfully above those of the Commission.