As of: February 19, 2024, 6:34 p.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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The war in Ukraine has once again motivated Germany to invest more money in the ailing Bundeswehr.
(Archive image) © Federico Gambarini/dpa
The war in Ukraine has once again motivated Germany to invest more money in the ailing Bundeswehr.
But is that enough?
There was a hail of criticism at the security conference.
Brussels - The Russian invasion of Ukraine has alarmed Germany - and caused it to invest more money in its own military.
For the first time in three decades, Germany reported to NATO planned defense spending amounting to two percent of gross domestic product.
There is still criticism.
Military spending: A turning point “missed” by Germany?
In comparison to other Western industrialized nations, Germany's military spending is even more apparent than in line with the sharp increase in geopolitical risks.
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
this is
suggested by an analysis by economist Christoph Trebesch from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which he presented at the Munich Security Conference.
The British economic historian Niall Ferguson, who lives in the United States, is also harshly critical of Germany.
According to the FAZ,
he described
German defense spending as “scandalously low” and “completely bizarre from a historical perspective”.
Ferguson continued: “Like the revolution of 1848, the turning point will be a turning point missed by Germany.” He demands that the government should work to convince society that such spending is important for the country.
Ferguson believes it would make sense if Germany spent 3.5 percent of its economic output on defense.
Defense spending: Germany reports record amount to NATO
In fact, the federal government has also taken action and is putting more money into defense - and although it does not meet Ferguson's ideas, it does meet NATO's goal: According to research by the German Press Agency, the federal government submitted an amount for the current year that was converted into comparative figures of the defense alliance corresponds to a sum of 73.41 billion dollars.
In absolute terms, this is a record value for Germany and, according to the current NATO forecast, would mean a GDP ratio of 2.01 percent.
In the past, according to documents from the NATO archives, Germany last spent two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 1992.
During the Cold War years the rate was usually over three percent.
NATO's current defense spending target requires alliance members to permanently invest at least two percent of their gross domestic product in defense annually.
It was decided last summer in the face of threats from Russia.
The target that was valid to date only stipulated that by 2024 all alliance states should approach the benchmark of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense.
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With special funds for the NATO quota – but what comes next?
The massive increase in German defense spending is currently made possible by a special fund worth 100 billion euros.
However, this is expected to be used up in 2027.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is therefore urging that a plan be quickly developed as to how Germany can achieve the NATO targets in the long term.
“We have the Chancellor’s promise that we will invest at least two percent of gross domestic product in defense by the 2030s,” Pistorius recently told
Spiegel
.
The foreseeable expiry of the special fund must be reflected in the financial planning.
With material from dpa