Margherita Bianchi

2 weeks ago | bruegel.org | Ketan Ahuja |Rim Berahab |Margherita Bianchi |Jason Bordoff

Faced with major security challenges, Europe is preparing to boost its defence capacity. To defend itself against Russia without the United States, Europe needs to rapidly increase spending from the current level of about 2 percent of GDP to an estimated 3.5 percent of GDP – an increase of about €250 billion annually (Burilkov and Wolff, 2025). In March, the European Commission proposed the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030, which seeks to mobilise €800 billion in defence spending.