Defence minister hopes to raise 2.4 billion euros through fund
Belgian Defence minister Theo Francken hopes to raise 2.4 billion euros through a new defence fund, he told the Chamber of Representatives early Friday morning.
Francken faced several defence-related questions from MPs during this week's marathon debate on the new government's coalition agreement. The De Wever government has pledged to increase defence spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2029, in line with the NATO norm, and to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2034.
To achieve this goal, there will be a defence fund, a subsidiary of the Federal Holding and Investment Corporation (SFPI), Francken said. This fund will be fed by the "transfer of selected holdings".
Gap of 4 billion euros
"This fund needs to be in place relatively quickly because we have a lot of catching up to do," Francken said. For example, the STAR (Security/Service, Technology, Ambition and Resilience) plan, which aims to revitalise the Belgian defence sector, is underfunded by 4 billion euros until 2030.
"This fund needs to be in place relatively quickly because we have a lot of catching up to do"
"This is partly due to the fact that funds from Euroclear (where most of Russia's frozen assets are stored, ed.) have been used to support Ukraine, effectively inflating defence's share of GDP," the minister said.
European leeway
The De Wever government will increase defence spending by one billion euros. This means that the remaining 3 billion euros still have to be found. Francken plans to raise about 2.4 billion euros with the fund and hopes to find the remaining 600 million euros by, for example, labelling certain infrastructure investments as defence spending.
Francken added that he hoped the EU would soon clarify "what can and cannot be done now outside the budget target". European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signalled on Monday that the Commission wants to give member states more budgetary leeway for defence spending.
© BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS
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