A “competitive” war budget

The €410 billion earmarked for the “European Competitiveness Fund” is a Trojan horse for militarising the EU’s economy. €131 billion will be dedicated to “defence & space” financing arms production, dual-use and surveillance technology. The Research & Development fund, Horizon Europe, will double with defence as a strategic priority.

In his briefing to the European Parliament, Piotr Serafin signalled a shift in Europe’s infrastructure towards military use, with a tenfold increase in military mobility under the Connecting Europe Facility.

Leveraging industrial strategy, von der Leyen proposes to expand the EU’s remit into military policy, aligning with NATO/Trump’s demands for 5% of GDP in weapons spending. These investments fuel an arms race, escalate global and regional tensions, while diverting resources from pressing crises like climate change and rampant inequality.

Increased European arms funding has deadly consequences in the Global South, such as in Palestine. In the last budget, half of the funds from the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) were approved after 7 October 2023 and given to companies that have armed Israel’s genocide. The German arms firm Rheinmetall, which supplies tank shells to Israel, received more than €133 million from the ASAP fund. The Norwegian arms firm Nammo, which supplies Israel with bunker-defeat munitions, received over €96 million from ASAP. In the last budget, Horizon Europe funded Israeli universities with close ties to the Israeli military. One of Israel’s largest arms companies, Israel Aerospace Industries, received €640,000 during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Bankrolling Border Violence

The MFF proposal also expands a regime of detention, pushbacks, biometric surveillance and externalisation at the EU’s borders. It seeks to “fully digitalise border control management” through investing in AI despite consistent criticism of human rights abuses, racial profiling and algorithmic discrimination.

Under the National and Regional Partnership Plans, border & immigration management will triple to €63 billion, including increased funding to:

• Frontex despite numerous accounts of its human rights abuses, violent pushbacks and corruption covering up cases of abuse committed by border agents.
• Europol which is set to to expand its surveillance capabilities and pushback of migrants, under the Migration Pact and the Facilitatior’s Package.
• Border policing infrastructure, with a focus on deportations & anti-smuggling operations, ignoring the causal role the EU’s lack of safe passages plays in creating the conditions for “people smuggling”.

According to Politico Europe, the Global Europe Fund also aims to weaponise development funds, with the Commission threatening to cut financial support to African countries unless it reduces migration flows. This will force poorer nations to intensify migrant policing, surveillance, and violent pushbacks in return for aid.

Who loses in the war economy?

The EU budget determines the direction of taxpayers’ money from across the EU. In order to finance more weapons, surveillance technology and militarised borders, the MFF proposal rolls back funds for climate finance commitments, social protection and agricultural spending. Clear social trade-offs from the MFF proposal include:

• Workers – the European Social Fund, essential in the last budget to fund jobs, education and tackling poverty, has been drastically cut.

• Farmers – 87€ billion bas been cut from the Common Agriculture Policy, a 30% reduction from the previous budgetary cycle. Yet, no reforms to the way the fund distributes subsidies, which sees 80% go to 20% of big agribusiness, further squeezing out small farmers.

• Climate – Funding for climate and nature is slashed by 10-15%, leaving Europe dangerously unprepared as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods rage on. This bolsters false climate solutions, such as the EU Emissions Trading System and carbon border adjustment mechanism, which have done little to decarbonise and transition away from fossil fuels for the past 20 years.

This budget proposal sacrifices essential elements of security, including jobs, education, health, food, climate & welfare, for the benefit of the arms and big tech industries.

What’s the alternative?
A peace and protection economy

At a time when a quarter of people in Europe are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, workers’ wages are stagnating against inflation, and the climate crisis worsens, the EU’s budget must address real problems.

It should be raising funds to lift people out of poverty, promote a just climate transition, guarantee free healthcare and education for all, and provide safe passageways for migrants.

Another Europe is possible. The EU could fund a peace and protection economy; one that builds a society of care instead of control, protection over punishment and welfare over weapons. This requires a radical redistribution of the EU’s resources.

References

Equinox & Migrant Justice Community of Practice: EU leaders: end your war on migrants: https://www.equinox-eu.com/eu-leaders-must-end-their-war-on-migrants-and-change-course/

European Anti Poverty Network: Ending poverty is a financial choice: Prioritising poverty eradication in Europe’s budget post-2027: https://www.eapn.eu/eapn-statement-ending-poverty-is-a-financial-choice-prioritising-poverty-eradication-in-europes-budget-post-2027/