Many EU countries apply for a defense output clause

Until Friday, 13 EU member states have submitted a request to exclude defense expenditure on budget rules – according to the European Commission data. The countries where the excessive deficit procedure is conducted will gain flexibility – said the spokesman of the KE Balazs Ujvari.

According to fiscal rules, the deficit of Member States may not exceed 3 percent. GDP, and the debt cannot be more than 60 percent. Defense expenses that will use the output clause will be excluded from these rules.

Ujvari announced that by Friday the application for a defensive output clause was submitted by: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. This number is still lower than that of finance, Andrzej Domański, given by the Minister of Finance on Wednesday. The EC takes into account only the countries that have submitted a formal application, while the EU Council, in which Poland holds the presidency, also takes into account the oral commitment. The Polish Minister of Finance also mentioned Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Croatia.

Therefore – as Ujvari explained on Friday – the number given by the EC in the coming days should increase.

In May, the EC will evaluate the applications and will issue your decision on June 4. The EC spokesperson did not want to determine whether all the countries who apply for excluding defense expenditure from the EU budget discipline will receive such a exemption, but stated that with great similarity this can be expected. “We think that there is a good reason why these requests will be considered,” he emphasized.

The applicants include countries where the excessive deficit procedure is conducted; It's about Poland, Belgium, Slovakia and Hungary.

“If the country covered by the excessive deficit procedure is asked to launch the so -called national output clause and this application will be considered positively (by the EC – PAP) and the EU Council will agree, this will be taken into account when conducting the assessment, and the flexibility that these Member States will gain thanks to the clause will be taken into account,” said UJVARI spokesman.

The suspension of expenditure rules in the case of defense expenditure is one of the elements of the EU Dzierzdzacza Package, which the head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen proposed in February and to which the leaders of the member states agreed.

The use of such an exception is to enable the countries to spend an additional equivalent of 1.5 percent. GDP for defense in 2025-2029; The reference point is 2021.

According to the EC estimates, the plan to rearrange Europe is to allow an additional EUR 800 billion in the entire EU. EUR 150 billion will provide the EC under the SAFE loan program, and the remaining EUR 650 billion is the sum that can be obtained by suspending expenditure rules in the area of ​​defense.

Large EU economies such as France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands have not asked for release. When asked whether it is still possible to mobilize without their participation the EUR 650 billion for defense in domestic budgets, the EC spokesman pointed out that not all countries, as expenditure, are necessary, because there are countries that have sufficient fiscal space to increase the outlays of the army without exposing themselves to excessive deficit procedure.

From Brussels Magdalena Cedro (PAP)

MCE/ AP/