Gentiloni: Eurobonds for defence as early as 2025

"I believe that defence could be one of the fields in which this kind of joint effort could be possible. We all know what the reasons are: international developments and the greater needs in terms of strengthening our common defence. If you ask me when, I would say 2025, or soon. But it's not up to me, that's easy". This was said by the EU Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, at a press conference in Strasbourg. The EU has "already resorted to common debt even beyond the Next Generation Eu: first, with the Sure mechanism and, later, with the financing for Ukraine," he recalled.

On 19 November, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom met in Warsaw to renew support for Ukraine and, on the occasion, said they were open to issuing joint debt to finance military expenditure, including efforts to reach the NATO target of 2% of GDP for defence.

Wars, from Ukraine to the Middle East, have pushed defence spending to a record high: globally, it has reached nearly $2.5 trillion with a 6.8% growth to $2.443 trillion in 2023, or $306 per person. This has benefited the balance sheets of companies in the armaments industry: if we consider those with security-related revenues of more than half a billion euros, the turnover of the global defence industry touched 615 billion last year (+9.8%) and will grow further. According to a report on the sector by Mediobanca's research area, which examined 40 multinationals accounting for 60% of global turnover, as well as 100 Italian companies, revenues will rise by 9% by the end of this year, at a rate more than double that of global GDP (+3.2%) with European groups accelerating ahead of the US big boys.