On Tuesday 2 September, the European Defence Agency (EDA) announced that defence spending by the 27 EU Member States in 2024 had reached the “unprecedented figure” of €343 billion, an increase of 19% compared to 2023, taking spending to 1.9% of GDP.
For the first time, defence investment has reached €106 billion, representing 31% of total expenditure, and research and development (R&D) expenditure €13 billion (up 20% between 2023 and 2024, compared with an increase of 6% between 2022 and 2023). Expenditure on research and technology (R&T), a subset of R&D spending, reached €5 billion in 2024, a sharp rise of 27%. Defence equipment purchases will increase by 39% between 2023 and 2024, to €88 billion.
In 2024, 25 Member States increased their defence spending in real terms, while only two countries slightly reduced their defence spending (Ireland and Portugal). Sixteen Member States have increased their spending by more than 10%, compared with eleven in 2023.
24 Member States have reached the 20% defence investment threshold, compared with 20 in 2023.
According to the report, defence spending per capita will rise from €642 in 2023 to €764 in 2024 (€426 in 2014).
Compared with the major powers, Europeans spent almost three times less than the United States (€845 billion), but more than China (€250 billion) and Russia (€107 billion).
The increase will continue in 2025. In addition, the European Defence Agency estimates that defence spending should reach €381 billion in 2025, or 2.1% of GDP, with €130 billion in defence investment and €17 billion in R&D spending (as well as €6 billion in R&T spending).
“It is encouraging to see EU Member States increasing their defence spending to record levels. Reaching NATO’s new target of 3.5% of GDP will require even greater efforts, totalling more than €630 billion a year”, EDA Director General André Denk explained in a press release.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/i8d (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)