Poland’s finance minister has called for urgent agreement on EU loans to support member states’ defense spending.
EU finance and economy ministers have held two days of talks together with central bank governors in Warsaw as part of Poland’s six-month presidency of the bloc.
The informal ‘ECOFIN’ meeting came a month after the European Parliament passed the ReArm Europe program aimed at making as much as €800 billion available for the continent’s security needs. The plans include a proposal by the European Commission to make up to €150 billion available to the member states as defense borrowing facility.
Following the talks, Finance Minister Andrzej Domański told a press conference the countries in the east of the EU are spending heavily on security and defense.
In early April, Poland announced plans to spend 5% of its GDP on defense in 2026, while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have committed to doing so in the coming years.
"We believe that security is a common European good and that it is time to take greater responsibility for the security of Europe," Poland’s state-owned news agency, PAP, quoted Domański as saying.
"We thank you for the largest package of this type in history," he said of ReArm, “but our goal is to finalize the work urgently."
He said the Polish presidency would like to see the loan initiative, dubbed SAFE (Security Action for Europe), become operative as early as May.
The EU’s trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Brussels wants to support defense investments until 2030. He added that applications can now be submitted for release from fiscal obligations, enabling member states to free up capital for defense spending.
