Robert Fico excluded Slovakia from EU defense cooperation

EU leaders discussed the creation of a "coalition of the willing" to strengthen Europe's defense capabilities at a meeting in Brussels yesterday. They want to include non-EU countries such as the UK and Norway in the coalition, and, on the other hand, to exclude neutral states such as Austria and Ireland as well as governments with openly pro-Russian stances such as Slovakia and Hungary, writes the Financial Times. The EU points out that the average EU country's defense budget of 1.9% of GDP is inadequate compared to Russia's 9%. The European Commission has estimated the amount needed for better defense capability at €500bn. There is talk of increasing the EU defense budgets to 5% of GDP to catch up with the US or Russia. A coalition of the willing will finance spending in the defense industry, and Slovakia may be excluded from these investments.

(dennikN.sk)