Overview
- In Madrid, EU Commissioner Andrius Kubilius met Defense Minister Margarita Robles and told lawmakers that limiting spending below higher NATO benchmarks weakens collective defense.
- He called it “a pity” Spain will not go beyond roughly 2% of GDP and questioned how capacity goals can be met without more funding.
- On Friday he said Europe has about 50% of the military capacity needed to deter Russia and cautioned that U.S. support is likely to decline, urging Europe to replace key enablers with its own systems.
- He praised allies’ pledges to reach around 3.5% of GDP and pressed EU members to lift budgets to NATO-agreed levels.
- Spain’s government maintains a 2–2.1% target and insists it can meet obligations, while lawmakers kept up scrutiny of Huawei contracts as defense officials cited safeguards but withheld impact reports.