Italian Greens in European Parliament: No to Belligerent Drift

The Italian Green delegation to the European Parliament expressed “firm opposition” to the resolution on the so-called White Paper on the Future of European Defense. In a note, circulated in Strasbourg, France, where the European legislative body resides, the Italian Greens condemned the spirit and letter of the controversial document: “No one mentioned negotiations and diplomacy. It is inconceivable for us to accept such a high expenditure for a rearmament race in individual EU states, without focusing on harmonization and efficiency of expenditures and resources, considering that the combined expenditure is already higher than Russia’s. And this even without making sure that European citizens’ money is invested in transition and infrastructure, which are equally important for security. In addition, we reiterate that it is not acceptable for the European Commission to impose the decision of heavy rearmament by disenfranchising the European Parliament elected by the citizens,” the document reads.

The Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano also debunked the completely unfounded claims of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Russia “is spending more on defense than all of Europe combined.”

In fact, according to an analysis in Il Fatto Quotidiano , to date the European Union spends twice as much on weapons as Russia and more than China, but according to von der Leyen – an advocate of a single defense market for the Old Continent – it is still too little. That is on March 4, at the presentation of Rearm Europe, she had stated that Russia’s military spending corresponded to 9% of GDP. According to figures in the Russian Federation’s budgets, the figure for 2025 goes up, but stops at 6.3% of GDP. If “security” expenses are also added, it comes to 8%. These are the highest values since the Cold War, but they are still about one-third below what the Commission president indicated. Moreover, in 2023, Russian spending was still at 4.4% of GDP.

It is also worth mentioning that the Observatory on Public Accounts of the Catholic University directed by Carlo Cottarelli, presented in an Il Fatto Quotidiano article entitled “False Data on Russia to Push EU to Buy More Weapons,” has recalculated, and European military spending in 2024 turns out to be 58% higher than Russia’s, despite the fact that Moscow has been engaged in a war for three years that inflates the budget of its armed forces.

“Even the debate within the European Union on the situation in Ukraine continues to settle on the issue of weapons, without any questioning of how to enter negotiations and move toward a just peace,” the Italian Greens finally stressed. “Thus, there is no attempt whatsoever to find solutions for negotiation and conflict resolution, but a dangerous slide toward major escalation. This is a Europe that takes a belligerent drift with which it hurts the people, we will not stand for it,” the note concludes.