In light of the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius in July, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is calling for an increase in defence spending by most of the member states. Two percent of the national GDP should be the minimum.
For Luxembourg, however, this would mean mobilising another billion euros for defence. And this despite the fact that only a year ago, Defence Minister Bausch indicated that Luxembourg first wanted to reach one percent by 2028, i.e. 994 million euros.
For weeks now, the Luxembourgers have been working on special calculations at NATO headquarters in Brussels, which had to be justified by Minister Bausch in front of the international press on Thursday. He spoke of the special situation in Luxembourg, where the GDP also includes 230,000 commuters.
Indeed, there might be a possibility that Luxembourg will get past this hurdle; there should then be a rebate of up to 650 million euros. Final details are still to be clarified before the summit in Vilnius, the minister announced.
That Europe's current security structure is being undermine is becoming increasingly clear, meaning massive rearmament will be the norm over the next 10 years. And for this, the 31 NATO member states will have to face the new costly reality at the summit in four weeks' time.
However, finance will not be the only uncomfortable topic at the summit. The question of how to deal with Ukraine's possible accession to NATO is currently causing unrest among the member states. One thing is clear: as long as there is war, admission is out of the question.
