EU must find billions for arms within a year, says defence chief

BRUSSELS: Europe needs to find ways within the next year to fund hundreds of billions of euros in extra military spending to defend against any attack from Russia by the end of the decade, the European Union’s new defence commissioner has said.

Andrius Kubilius, a former prime minister of Lithuania who has just become the European Commission’s first defence chief, told Reuters in an interview that Europe needed a “big bang” of extra funding and weapons buying.

“We need to go big with our procurement,” Kubilius said. “On the other side, we need to have big-bang finances.” Kubilius’s comments reflect a view among many European leaders that the continent urgently needs to bolster its defences, driven by fears that an EU country could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target after Ukraine.

The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House and the United States’ increasing focus on China have also raised concerns in Europe that Washington will be less willing or able to help protect it in years to come.

There is broad agreement that Europe should spend more on defence, but EU countries have yet to agree on where to find the money. Kubilius said a solution needed to be found in the next year, citing intelligence estimates - such as one by Germany’s spy chief - that Russia could be ready to attack a Nato country by the end of the decade at the latest.