Greece will request the exception of defense spending, that is, the escape clause, from the further spending of the following years, as announced by the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, stressing that the letter would be sent by the Ministry of Finance this morning.

Speaking to ERT, Mr Pierrakakis said he would sign this request to be able to create the financial space of defense spending we would have in the coming years. ‘The increase foreseen from 2025 to about 2026 is half billion euros scheduled and this is also concerned in the coming years. There is a very specific program of defense spending we have presented as a government » The Minister stressed, explaining that the 500 million time in the budget of 2026 are excluded from the calculation from the expenditure rule.

“What needs to be passed as a message to the world and I want to personally emphasize it is that now the now European Union has other budget rules for a long time. What had we learned? That we had to have high primary surpluses Where did we have to have them now? It goes without saying that it continues to apply, but you can’t manage this surplus. It goes without saying that this is going to be the case, but you can’t manage this surplus in terms of spending it every year, why? What do all European states agree with? They now agree every year expenses. That is, we as a country agree with the European Union that we will spend, let’s say 100 billion euro. Can you deviate from this for time? You can, under conditions, a natural disaster is excluded. A special policy measure you receive is excluded. Here is the parameter in relation to the fiscal space we had last week. They took the measures for tax evasion, we had more space than them and so we could do this act. “.

To a question if the money can use exclusively and only for military spending Mr. Pierrakakis replied: “We paid them for military spending anyway. So if you exclude military spending on expenses they obviously give you additional fiscal space as a whole to be able to do the development and social prioritization Where do you want. “

“You can have your own space in general and macroeconomic as a country and we as a country have our own development and social priorities. We intended these costs to pay them anyway. What is the difference of Greece on the table for defense over other European countries? The other European countries say we increase spending compared to the year 2021, for example, where they were low, everywhere. Greece was the exception. Countries such as Greece, countries such as Poland were exceptions to the European Union. But we had already high defensive costs. So we are going to cover us with a place that we would pay very much anyway. Therefore, they allow us to be able to prioritize other things that are very vital and essential for us. “the Minister of Finance noted.