Referring to the French military expenditures, President Macron said that he “asked the head of the General Staff of National Defense (…) to proceed with a reassessment of the Law on Military Planning” given the new “geopolitical environment”.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for a stronger European defense industry, saying it needed to be “much stronger” as the need for military equipment grew in the wake of the war in Ukraine, and called for a “reassessment” of the military. France.
“We will not go forward repeating the mistakes of the past, spending large sums to buy from elsewhere is not a good idea,” he said, inaugurating the Eurosatory international exhibition near Paris, at a time when many European countries have express their willingness to increase their defense budgets.
“We need to strengthen the (defense) industry, (we need) the industrial and technological base of European defense much stronger and much more ambitious (…) otherwise we are just creating our tomorrow’s dependencies,” he added, reiterating positions he had already expressed when took over the French presidency in 2017.
“Let us build independence, European independence, French if we can, with partnerships that I want to have around the world, and I see a lot of non-Europeans here,” said the French president, but insisted that his goal was for his country and Europe to have “fewer dependencies” than in the past.
Referring to French military spending, President Macron, who was re-elected in April, said he had asked the Ministry of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff (… Military Planning “given the new” geopolitical environment “.
According to Mr Macron, France has entered an “economy of war”, in which “we will be for a long time” and can no longer live as “a year ago”.
“We did not expect strategic changes to be made to invest,” he said. ” stronger, at a lower cost “.
The French president began in 2017 to increase France’s military spending, after years of cutting it. The budget of the Ministry of Defense was increased again in 2022, to 40.9 billion euros, under the Law on Military Planning for the period 2019-2025, which provides for it to reach 50 billion euros in 2025.
