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Which are the countries spending most on defence?
The countries with the highest defence spending in recent years are the United States, China, Russia, India, and Saudi Arabia. European growth is outpaced by Russia's rising military spending, which has more than doubled the levels before its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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How much do Nato members spend on defence?
Even now, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Spain have not hit the target of two percent of GDP, agreed upon back in 2014.
The defence spending of the 23 EU countries that are Nato members amounted to 1.99 percent of their combined GDP in 2024 and is projected to reach 2.04 percent in 2025.
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Defence is a tech-driven industry that calls for massive investment in research and innovation. Defence R&D funding in the EU reached €3.9bn in 2022, according to Eurostat. However, according to the Dragi report, next-generation defence systems will require massive R&D investment. Since 2014, the US has prioritised R&D spending above all other military expenditure categories. France, Germany and Sweden are at the top of EU countries investing in R&D for defence.
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Since 2014, countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, North Macedonia, Slovakia, and Sweden have doubled their defence expenditures, while Luxembourg, Latvia, and Lithuania have tripled their spending. Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland have also nearly doubled their defence budgets.
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The total number of active military personnel in Europe, including the UK, is estimated to be around 1.5 million. However, its efficiency is undermined by the lack of a common command structure and military systems.
By the end of 2024, the number of Russian troops in Ukraine was approximately 700,000. However, it is estimated that Russia has about 1.3 million active military personnel and two million reservists.
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Is Europe moving towards a joint army?
No. Some countries, like France, have traditionally supported stronger EU military autonomy, while others, such as Poland and the Baltics, prioritise Nato. But rather than moving toward a single European army, the EU is focusing efforts on closer military cooperation, joint procurement, and faster response forces, as seen in the 2022 Strategic Compass, whose goal was to have a 5,000-strong rapid deployment force by 2025. Military mobility is still today one of the priorities of the EU’s defence strategy since no harmonised rules to move troops or equipment between countries in a situation of emergency.
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The invasion of Crimea in 2014, followed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has reshaped EU security policy, forcing the EU and Nato to rethink defence strategies and increase military spending to boost capabilities. The war in Ukraine and the Trump administration's apparent pivot towards Moscow has also revived discussions on EU strategic autonomy, with France (and now even Germany) pushing for more independence from US-led security structures.
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With its ReArm Europe plan, the European Commission aims to mobilise €800bn to boost EU defence spending, support Ukraine, and expand Europe’s industrial base.
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What challenges does the EU face in strengthening its military capabilities?
Defence cooperation, including joint ventures and shared procurement, is growing, but it remains limited. There have been specific efforts to boost artillery ammunition production, an area where Ukraine has a high demand. But the EU’s pledge to deliver one million 155-mm-calibre artillery shells between March 2023 and 2024 was impossible to fulfil in time, showing the challenges ahead. The EU Commission estimated in 2022 that the lack of cooperation leads to annual costs ranging from €25bn to €100bn.
Another of the key issues for the EU’s defence industry is fragmentation, especially outside the aeronautics and missile sectors. Fragmentation not only triggers duplication and higher production costs but also interoperability problems, limiting its scale and operational effectiveness in the field. As an indication, EU member states have provided ten different types of howitzers to Ukraine, according to the Draghi report. In addition, the EU operates 12 different types of battle tanks, whereas the US manufactures just one (the M1 Abrams).
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