Olan McEvoy
Research expert covering the European Union for society, economy, and politics.
Get in touch with us nowMany countries in the European Union increased military spending in proportion to their annual economic output (GDP) in the second half of the 2010s, as the geopolitical situation in Europe deteriorated in the aftermath of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the reemergence of great power conflict between the United States and China. Greece was the country with the highest amount of its GDP spent on military uses, with 3.9 percent being spent in 2022, an increase on the already high amounts in the previous years.
Four EU member states met the European Defence Agency and NATO target of two percent of GDP spent on their militaries in 2021 - they were: Greece, Poland, Estonia, and Latvia. On the other hand, most of the large European military powers underspent relative to GDP, with Germany and Italy spending only 1.5 percent of their GDPs. These countries are likely to invest more in their militaries in the coming years, in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and its aggressive foreign policy towards its European neighbors.
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