Some member states of the European Parliament have argued that additional military spending by countries with enormous public debt cannot be justified.
Other EU lawmakers support the idea due to the unpredictable nature of US President,, Donald Trump, in the context of his support for NATO.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has proposed to increase EU security spending by nearly 30 percent, from 3.5 billion euros ($4.1 billion) to 4.8 billion euros, for the 2021-2027 budget period to counter growing security threats, the Commission said in a press release on Wednesday.
According to the press release, 2.5 billion euros of the funding could go toward reinforcing the EU Internal Security Fund (ISF), 1.2 billion euros toward ensuring a safer decommissioning of nuclear activities in some of the EU states, and the remaining 1.1 billion euros toward EU security agencies.
A joint EU program called Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) which was adopted by the Council of the European Union in March foresees the possibility of a number of EU member states working more closely together in the area of security and defense in a binding and permanent framework.
