EC says union budget would need to increase 12-15-fold in event of war with Russia

BRUSSELS, July 2. /TASS/. The EU budget would have to increase 12 to 15 times in the event of a war with Russia and to prevent such a scenario, the bloc should raise its actual budget by at least 20%, European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius said during his speech at the European Commission's annual EU Budget Conference in Brussels.

Speaking about discussions on the EU's next seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, Kubilius said: "The whole MFF is only about 1.28% GNI. Frugals want to cut it down to 1%," roughly its current level.

"We have real threats, that Russia will start a war against EU Member States quite soon. In that case - following an analogy with US history, our EU budget perhaps will increase up to 12-15% of our GDP," Kubilius said.

"If we are serious - then now is the time to discuss not how to cut EU budget, but how to increase it at least up to 2%. In order to avoid the war. And in order to avoid, in the case of war, the need to increase EU budget up to 12-15%," he added.

EU federalization