EU considers defence fund to ease debt concerns for military gear

12/4/2025 17:45

European Union finance ministers started talks on Saturday over a joint defence fund that would buy and own defence equipment and charge members a fee for its use, as a way to spend more on defence without burdening national accounts with more debt.



The fund, called the European Defence Mechanism, was proposed by the Bruegel think tank in a paper for the ministerial discussions as a way of addressing concerns about how highly-indebted countries could pay for costly military equipment.



It is part of a broader European effort to prepare for a potential attack from Russia as EU governments realise they can no longer fully rely on the United States for their security.



"It's a good starting point for discussion," Portuguese Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said.



Several other EU countries also expressed initial support, noting that setting up such a fund could be technically relatively simple because it would be based on the model of the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.