On Monday 27 January, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland, Paweł Zalewski, called on other European countries to spend more on defence. This year, Poland’s defence spending is expected to reach 4.7% of its GDP.
“If EU Member States spend 5% of their GDP each, they will be completely autonomous. That’s why we want to convince them to increase their defence spending”, explained the Secretary of State at a hearing in the European Parliament.
When asked why Poland had bought military equipment from outside the EU to replenish its stocks, Mr Zalewski explained that “the capacity of the European defence industry is very limited”. “I’d love to make these procurements in the EU, but the European industry is not ready to answer our needs. It is therefore important to invest quickly and sufficiently and adequately in Europe’s defence industry”, he added.
Mr Zalewski felt that it was “key to maintain the global competitiveness of Europe’s defence industries. Raising the financing level and addressing [the problem of] the lack of resources together is part of the wider reflection on how to make the development of defence capabilities more tailored to the difficulties we are facing”.
The Polish Presidency of the EU Council will therefore support actions aimed at achieving Europe’s strategic autonomy by strengthening the capabilities of defence industries and guaranteeing adequate EU funding.
The Secretary of State returned to the implementation of the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), which is still a topic of discussion between Member States. “We will strive to find the right balance between long-term technological autonomy and meeting short-term security needs”, he promised. The Member States are divided between two ways forward: “One attitude is to use EDIP to fill the gaps immediately (Editor’s note: in the face of the Russian threat), while another is to say that we need to develop European defence industry capacities, which is important for strategic autonomy, for the future”, explained Mr Zalewski. He hoped to obtain the negotiating mandate to enter into discussions with the European Parliament under the Polish Presidency. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Léa Marchal)