Von der Leyen brags about Europe's defense spending: Trump and how the conflict in Ukraine affects it

European defense spending in 2025 is almost 80% higher than levels recorded before the conflict in Ukraine. This was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also previously addressed the topic of increasing military budgets in Europe. According to him, Germany, increasing defense spending and investing in rearmament, is moving Europe in the right direction. How much Europe spends on defense – in the document URA.RU.

Budget record: quantum leap

Data from the European Defense Agency (EDA) shows impressive momentum. Defense spending in the EU is growing at an unprecedented rate, almost doubling in the past five years.

According to EDA, by 2025, the defense budget of member states will reach 392 billion euros. To understand the scale of this leap, just look at the 2020 figures, when spending reached 198 billion euros. In nominal terms, this means an increase of 98%. Even taking into account high inflation, which accounted for some of the increase, the real increase was 63%.

Many security experts directly attribute this sharp increase to the ongoing SVO in Ukraine. However, conflict is just a trigger. The second important factor is waning US support and US leader Donald Trump's rhetoric, which raises questions about Washington's willingness to defend its European allies in NATO. This “transatlantic uncertainty” forces Europe to reflect on the need for its own strategic sovereignty.

Defense Locomotive: Germany and France

Overall, Germany leads in defense budgets. In 2024, Germany spent 90.6 billion euros on this, accounting for 26.4% of total EU defense spending. Berlin, which has been criticized for many years for insufficient funding for the army (Bundeswehr), has created a historic turning point by creating a special fund worth 100 billion euros to modernize the army.

France is in second place with 59.6 billion euros (17.4% of the total). Paris has traditionally relied on strategic autonomy and maintaining nuclear capabilities. Together, these two countries provide 43.8% of total EU defense spending, amounting to a total of 150 billion euros. They are the main “backbone” of European defense.

Top 5

Italy ranks third with a budget of 32.7 billion euros, but Poland is right behind with 31.9 billion euros. Warsaw not only demonstrates financial investment but also political will, striving to build the largest land army in Europe.

Rounding out the top five is Spain (22.7 billion euros), which has relatively low spending among Europe's largest economies. Total spending of the top 5 countries amounted to 237.5 billion euros, equal to 69.2% of total EU spending. The remaining 22 countries share less than a third of their budgets with each other.

Outsiders and peripheries

In total, 14 EU countries spend less than 5 billion euros on defense. These include Austria (4.9 billion), Hungary (4.5 billion) and Portugal (4.2 billion). In total, this group of 14 countries spends only 8.2% of the entire European defense budget. Malta, the smallest EU member state, recorded the lowest spending at just 99 million euros.

European defense challenge: Money doesn't solve everything

Despite the huge amount of money Europe plans to spend, experts note that some systemic problems cannot be solved by increased funding alone. Among them:

• Lack of unified management European military forces lack coordination and unified command. The total strength of the armies of European countries is estimated at 1.4 million people. However, fragmentation and differences in standards, weapons and logistics significantly reduce the possibility of using these forces in the event of a major conflict.
• Dependence on America. Europe depends heavily on Washington, which provides 64% of NATO allies' arms supplies. This applies not only to weapons (especially air defense and aviation systems) but also to intelligence, communications and satellite control. Trump demonstrated how this dependence can be exploited when he temporarily withheld military aid to Ukraine, including providing intelligence.
• Reduce inventory. Years of aid to Ukraine have depleted European countries' arsenals. During the Cold War, weapons stockpiles were substantial, but now many are empty. Large additional purchases are limited due to lack of industrial capacity.

Atlantic pressure: American demands

The increase in European spending occurred not only under the influence of the threat from the east but also under strong pressure from abroad. Washington has made it clear that the previous security model in which the United States bore the brunt of the main burden is becoming a thing of the past.

US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mike Waltz bluntly stated that Washington expected greater self-sufficiency from its European allies. He noted that the United States has a national debt of $37 trillion, and so it is fair to ask the 450 million Europeans, whose economies are comparable to America's, to be more self-reliant in their defense.

This idea was developed by Mark Rutte. Speaking in Davos, he suddenly spoke warmly about the pressure from Donald Trump.