Adopted in record time by the Council of the European Union, albeit bypassing the prerogatives of the European Parliament (see EUROPE B13649A23), the European ‘SAFE’ instrument for lending to 19 Member States to increase military spending is struggling to produce concrete results.
For several weeks now, the national plans of three EU countries - France, Hungary, and the Czech Republic - the last three still requiring the approval of the European Commission and ultimately the EU Council,...