Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.08-050706/https://www.ft.com/content/76937db3-0b3b-44d4-9005-9709512acd53
A proposed €150bn injection into the EU’s defence industry has become a new flashpoint in a long-standing battle between France and Germany over the continent’s rearmament drive and whether it should include countries outside the bloc.
Spooked by US President Donald Trump’s threats to end generations of American protection, Europe has pledged to increase defence spending dramatically and scale up their domestic capabilities that have withered since the cold war.
Last week the European Commission proposed to raise €150bn that would be lent to capitals to boost their military production. While the broad idea has received unanimous political backing, the details are still being fleshed out, with heavy lobbying over whether the cash could be spent on arms made outside the bloc.
I do not have a concrete proposition, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask it of me or anyone here. I’m just a random person. But neither does the EU, USA or anyone for that matter. That’s exactly my point, there are no measures taken for a solution by anyone. It’s a race to power, which, just as appeasements, never work.
People nowadays hear the word diplomacy and immediately think it’s treason. Has there ever been a war where the enemy is not being portrayed as the greatest evil, whether it is or isn’t true. Both sides will claim that for their enemies. With that logic there would never be any diplomacy anywhere. Of course, I have to make the disclaimer, Putin is the aggressor. Putin is the worse of the two sides. There is no question about it. That doesn’t mean we are good, or will be, if we have the military power. We’ll still be relying on the whim of a few people, just friendlier as they will be from “our” side.
That’s the point, isn’t it? We’re just happy that it might be EU who “wins” because we live here and will feel safer.
This might sound off topic but some time ago I stopped isolating myself in a bubble because I couldn’t reconcile feeling any accomplishment with constant preaching to the choir or trying convince someone entirely opposite of my worldview. I still want to discuss productively and I think it’s worth trying here. People could still recognise that we’re not in that much of a risk of Russian invasion because EU is still pretty strong but there’s a strong possibility that defense efforts will be engineered in a way where wealthy get even wealthier again and that’s bringing us to our own Trumps closer again. That’s all assuming that France doesn’t turn to Le Pen or UK to Farage in the next election cycle and hoping for anything else might be wishful thinking. Still worth an effort.