“The lines are moving,” says European Commissioner Thierry Breton

“The lines are moving” in favor of a common loan by European states to finance EU defense spending, says Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, on France Inter, Sunday March 24. It quantifies the needs of “additional financing” has “100 billion euros”.

The European Commission is due to report in June on ways to finance a “common loan” States to finance this “Defense Europe”. France is in favor but Germany and the Netherlands in particular are opposed to this idea. “There was also some reluctance when we proposed the big loan to respond to the consequences of the Covid crisis but afterwards we are moving forward”assured Thierry Breton.

“I see that the lines are moving. Now there is a consensus to ask us to take up this issue. So we will come back with my teams with proposals”he continued. “Every time we succeeded,” estimated Thierry Breton. “It’s difficult to be a democracy, but we are moving forward. Which is not the case in the United States. They don’t know how to make their democracy work.”

Thierry Breton estimated this financing at 100 billion euros. “50 billion to defend all what we call our contested spaces: space, space, cyber, maritime, air”, he details “but also 50 billion to increase this acceleration” of the development of “the defense apparatus” European.