Why does Europe pursue militarization?
Europe has agreed on a 150 billion euro regional security fund proposed by the European Commission. The structure would be financed through joint borrowing and loans to member states and a number of other countries, including Ukraine.
According to RT on May 20, Reuters reported that the EU has agreed on a 150 billion Euro EU security fund proposed by the European Commission (EC).
"EU countries have reached an agreement in principle to create a 150 billion euro ($168.3 billion) fund called Security Action for Europe (SAFE) to strengthen Europe's defense capabilities," an EU diplomat said.
The plan proposed by the EC in March would be financed through joint borrowing and would provide loans to EU countries and some other countries, “such as Ukraine, for projects aimed at strengthening defence and stimulating the European arms industry”.
However, large-scale rearmament plans in EU countries could harm their economies, Politico notes. According to the publication, European countries intend to finance military spending mainly by increasing national debt.
“This is problematic because the European rearmament plans will be financed largely by debt. Public debt levels in the EU are already high and increasing them could harm the economy in the long term,” Politico noted.
The European Commission has "opened up investment opportunities in the military sector" worth billions of euros, but as a result "economic strains will certainly be unavoidable in the short term and spending cuts in other areas will also be required".
“While the production of weapons and bombs is included in GDP figures, land mines or howitzers in barracks do not increase productivity in the long run. They may act as safeguards for the GDP-producing system, protecting it from invasion, but their contribution to net profits is impossible to quantify,” Politico said.
Earlier, former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, leader of the Five Star Movement opposition party, also noted the fact that the EC's plan to rearm Europe would lead to even greater instability. "When countries accumulate weapons in pursuit of stability, the only result is increased instability," he said in an interview with the Euractiv news portal.
“Europe is adopting a military approach, militarizing its national economies under the pretext of containing Russia and helping Ukraine. But many in the European Union do not like this, because such a transition will cost Europeans a lot of money, they will have to cut costs, cut consumption and direct everything to strengthening their defense capabilities,” Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RT.
The head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, Alexander Mikhailov, believes that attempts by European officials to strengthen the EU's defense capabilities will not only lead to social resentment but also cause additional economic problems.
“Now issues related to education, health care and energy infrastructure in European countries will be considered in favor of arms production and purchases. All this will lead not only to social tensions, but also to another economic crisis: further inflation, rapid increase in prices of essential goods,” said analyst Mikhailov.
Experts agree that Europe’s pursuit of militarization will ultimately lead to social unrest. With Europe moving toward war, people will be forced out of the comfort zone they are accustomed to.
