The European Council made it known a while ago that 16 Member States have submitted a written request for the activation of the national escape clause in the context of the Stability and Development Pact and the Rearm Europe Plan.

The Member States who made a request until this morning were five, with the number multiplying within a few hours, as the European Council announced in a statement and officially reached sixteen.

Among them Greece, at a request made by the Minister of National Economy and Finance yesterday. Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

This is:

  • Belgium,
  • Bulgaria,
  • the Czech Republic,
  • Denmark,
  • Germany,
  • Estonia,
  • Greece,
  • the Croatia,
  • the Latvia,
  • Lithuania,
  • Hungary,
  • Poland,
  • Portugal,
  • Slovenia,
  • Slovakia and
  • Finland.

According to the European Commission and the European Council, requests are expected from other Member States, which, although off -date, which was the last day of April, are expected to be accepted. As stated in the European Commission’s announcement “Additional requests are expected to be submitted to a later stage, as several Member States have expressed interest in taking advantage of this clause. “

According to the Rearm Plan, the activation of the national escape clause provides Member States with an additional budgetary margin for increasing defense spending, remaining within the EU’s fiscal rules.