WARSAW — Romania’s government is planning to use a national emergency procedure to allocate extra funds from the state budget to the country’s defense industry, and support the production of new weapons for the Romanian military, local business news site Profit.ro reports.
According to a draft government document obtained by the news site, the move is caused by the need to modernize the Romanian military as a result of the rising insecurity in the country’s neighborhood neighboring Ukraine, which has been struggling against Russia-backed insurgents, and the “regional geopolitical context.” Romania shares a border with Ukraine which has been struggling against Russia-backed insurgents in the country’s eastern part.
“A lack of … financing to investment programs by the defense industry could significantly injure the basic interests and security of the Romanian state,” the document says.
The new funds are to allow local defense companies to supply armored vehicles, air defense missiles, artillery systems, explosives, personal weapons and other gear for the Romanian military.
To ensure that the European Union does not treat the transfer of funds as illegal state aid, Bucharest is foreseeing a special procedure to allocate the money to the defense industry.
In 2014, the Romanian government decided to scrap 1.1 billion lei (US $281 million) of in debts owed by 15 state-run defense companies to overhaul their finances.
