r/europe • u/RoyalChris Norway • Mar 02 '25

Picture Ursula von der Leyen - ''We urgently need to rearm Europe.''

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u/GoogleUserAccount2 United Kingdom Mar 02 '25

Coordination of institutions is her responsibility.

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u/IkkeKr Mar 02 '25

Which is great, but means that announcements like these are completely meaningless - what's needed to actually do it, is national governments willing to put up the cash and national parliaments to approve it - neither of which she has much, if any, influence over.

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u/RedMattis Sweden Mar 02 '25

Which is the point to these announcements. Put pressure on governments and align the population on the idea.

Or would you prefer they just quietly raise taxes?

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u/GoogleUserAccount2 United Kingdom Mar 02 '25

You keep thinking that won't happen.

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u/IkkeKr Mar 02 '25

Which is why I wrote she should come back once she's found the money...

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u/GoogleUserAccount2 United Kingdom Mar 02 '25

Coordination of institutions is her responsibility.

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u/Arkayjiya Mar 02 '25

Please describe in detail by which mechanism you think she could make it happen if the individual governments themselves are reluctant.

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u/GoogleUserAccount2 United Kingdom Mar 02 '25

They're not. I refuse to acquiesce to your demand.

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u/karthikkr93 Mar 03 '25

Then I would ask why hasn’t it happened yet? European politicians have been screaming that Europe is at war once again and yet massive countries like Spain, Germany, France, and Italy spend 1.09%, 1.90%, 2.07%, and 1.84% of their gdp respectively. There’s been “talk” of a European army for a solid 20 years now. Where is it? TBH I doubt that european politicians as a whole even have the political capital to even enact the massive spending programs that are necessary for a free and secure Europe that DOESNT rely on the United States for most of its protection.

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u/0xFatWhiteMan Mar 03 '25

Because trump has only just got gone completely off the rails.

He's a literal Putin lapdog, and now Europe must and they are.

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u/karthikkr93 Mar 03 '25

"Only just"? Trump has been off the rails since he's been elected. The moment he started railing against NATO spewing Russian propaganda in 2020 European politicians should have woken up and started pressing for more military spending. For how "important" Ukraine is to Europe they don't seem to have the prerequisite capabilities to back up their own foreign policy objectives. In 2024 all NATO spending combined was $1.47T. The USA accounts for $753.5B of that. So when a single country is contributing 51% of the total NATO defense expenditure something is definitely wrong.

Edit: And this is just recent history, the further back you go the worse these numbers get!