The Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, today made a request to the European Council and the European Commission to activate the national escape clause, provided for by European fiscal rules.

The aim is to exclude the increase in defense spending from budgetary objectives, based on the decision taken by the European Council of March 6, 2025.

According to the Ministry of Finance, defense spending in Greece in budgetary terms (Cofog-Eurostat appointment) is estimated to rise from 2.2% of GDP in 2024to 2.3% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026, as a result of the implementation of the new long -term defense equipment program recently approved by the government. This covers the period 2025-2036, and is expected to lead to high levels of defense spending after 2026.

According to the provisions of the activation of the national escape clause, the fiscal rules will continue to they are operating normally. The deviations from the approved limits of net primary expenditure, for other expenditure other than defense, will be recorded in the check account of Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1263.

On the basis of the above, for 2026 it is provided for Increasing equipment spending of 0.5 billion euros, which is expected to be excluded from the budgetary targets, according to the provisions of the national escape clause.