Berlin says new €150bn funding for defence industry should be open to non-EU partners, but Paris disagrees

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.08-050706/https://www.ft.com/content/76937db3-0b3b-44d4-9005-9709512acd53

A proposed €150bn injection into the EU’s defence industry has become a new flashpoint in a long-standing battle between France and Germany over the continent’s rearmament drive and whether it should include countries outside the bloc.

Spooked by US President Donald Trump’s threats to end generations of American protection, Europe has pledged to increase defence spending dramatically and scale up their domestic capabilities that have withered since the cold war.

Last week the European Commission proposed to raise €150bn that would be lent to capitals to boost their military production. While the broad idea has received unanimous political backing, the details are still being fleshed out, with heavy lobbying over whether the cash could be spent on arms made outside the bloc.

  • miskOPEnglish
    71·
    1 day ago

    It’s that I don’t believe scare tactics lead to peace.

    It takes just one state actor that doesn’t play by the rules and it all falls apart. Let’s not be naive because being exploited for this will be extremely unpleasant. I live in Poland which spent over 100 years under Russian occupation. Now we live under American one which is slightly less exploitative but not great either. The cognitive dissonance is strong in our nation after Obama forced us to reset relations with Russia after they invaded Ukraine for the first time lol.

    All of us want peace but appeasement has been tried and failed time and time again. Lay down the arms and get steamrolled and then get exploited for another 100 years until another empire inevitably falls? Nah.

    • porompopmpom@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      I never said lay down arms. I just said that there is no plan for deescalation.

      I’m happy to hear of a plan, I might be unaware.

      Also, I get that people disagree. That’s fine. But at least disagree with something I actually said.

      • miskOPEnglish
        4·
        1 day ago

        I’m not sure what the proposition is here though. We can’t discuss with Russia using reason, ethics or morals, there’s only strength. If someone proposes ceasefire then Russia will agree to it only if they intend to exploit that even further because that’s the only dimension they consider. The only hope you have to win by deescalating is that they die out of laughter.

        Wars are won by not playing by the rules and there’s strong evidence that due to technological proliferation it’s much harder for a large state to overpower a smaller one (I think Trump recognises that and that’s why US is retreating in general). This is the time to stand up against every empire, not just Russia or US but the irony is that Europe might become an empire again in the process.

        • porompopmpom@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          I do not have a concrete proposition, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask it of me or anyone here. I’m just a random person. But neither does the EU, USA or anyone for that matter. That’s exactly my point, there are no measures taken for a solution by anyone. It’s a race to power, which, just as appeasements, never work.

          People nowadays hear the word diplomacy and immediately think it’s treason. Has there ever been a war where the enemy is not being portrayed as the greatest evil, whether it is or isn’t true. Both sides will claim that for their enemies. With that logic there would never be any diplomacy anywhere. Of course, I have to make the disclaimer, Putin is the aggressor. Putin is the worse of the two sides. There is no question about it. That doesn’t mean we are good, or will be, if we have the military power. We’ll still be relying on the whim of a few people, just friendlier as they will be from “our” side.

          This is the time to stand up against every empire, not just Russia or US but the irony is that Europe might become an empire again in the process.>

          That’s the point, isn’t it? We’re just happy that it might be EU who “wins” because we live here and will feel safer.

          • miskOPEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            This might sound off topic but some time ago I stopped isolating myself in a bubble because I couldn’t reconcile feeling any accomplishment with constant preaching to the choir or trying convince someone entirely opposite of my worldview. I still want to discuss productively and I think it’s worth trying here. People could still recognise that we’re not in that much of a risk of Russian invasion because EU is still pretty strong but there’s a strong possibility that defense efforts will be engineered in a way where wealthy get even wealthier again and that’s bringing us to our own Trumps closer again. That’s all assuming that France doesn’t turn to Le Pen or UK to Farage in the next election cycle and hoping for anything else might be wishful thinking. Still worth an effort.