PNN – The report of “Mario Draghi”, the former Prime Minister of Italy and the former President of the European Central Bank, warned and emphasized the weakness of the European Union in terms of economic competitiveness that the member states of this union have not invested enough in joint military projects and are too dependent on American defense equipment.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network from “Washington Times”, the report states that 27 EU member states have failed to make the best use of Europe’s research and development capacity to modernize their armed forces, with only a small level of economic investment compared to the United States.
This article added: The results of this report can fuel the complaints raised by Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the upcoming presidential elections in this country, based on the non-commitment of the European Union and NATO allies in fulfilling their promises to increase defense spending.
Meanwhile, the arms issue was part of a larger challenge in the report, which asked EU countries to spend around $800 billion annually to boost economic growth and worker productivity.
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According to this report, Mario Draghi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, who once headed the European Central Bank, told reporters in Brussels on Monday: We are currently in a critical situation. Europe is wasting its common resources. We have huge collective spending power, but we use it only in a few limited European national and collective routes.
The report comes as the European Union continues to struggle to acquire enough weapons and ammunition to help Ukraine fend off a Russian invasion and tries to revive Europe’s defense industry.
The report notes that from mid-2022 to mid-2023, 63% of all EU defense orders were awarded to US companies and another 15% to other suppliers outside the EU. Last week, the Netherlands joined the long list of EU member states that have ordered big-budget US-made F-35 fighter jets.
In 2022, defense R&D spending in 27 EU member states amounted to $11.8 billion. This amount shows the very low level of participation of European countries in this field compared to 140 billion dollars in the United States.
The Washington Times concluded: US leaders have encouraged their European allies and Canada to spend more on defense for more than a decade. Although Donald Trump, with his threat to refuse support to any country that does not respect Europe’s defense goals, is an exception, the general American approach has been to attract money to the US defense and military industry.