THE HAGUE, Netherlands \u2014 Germany\u2019s parliament on Tuesday voted in favor of amending the constitution to enable significantly increased defense spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bundestag decision, 512 to 206, comes amid European governments warming to the idea of taking on new debt for defense following Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vote solidifies incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s focus on defense issues, made possible by a two-thirds majority of the outgoing parliament that would have been iffy after a new class of lawmakers is seated on March 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The landmark vote upended a longstanding taboo against new government debt. Passed with the support of the Green Party in addition to the incoming governing coalition of conservatives and social democrats to reach a two-thirds majority, it changes the constitution to exempt military spending and some infrastructure funding from the country\u2019s strict debt ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, it means that a new aid package to Ukraine worth \u20ac3 billion ($3.28 billion) could be released by Berlin by the end of this week, the designated chancellor told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merz\u2019s position is remarkable: The so-called \u201cdebt brake\u201d had been introduced by his own party, which has long been hawkish on balancing the budget. He himself had previously decried attempts to increase government spending by taking new loans. Now, he has led his party through a rapid 180-degree turn. It presents a logical continuation of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s left-of-center government, which mobilized massive sums of money in the immediate aftermath of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spurred on by the crumbling of the transatlantic partnership with the United States under the second Trump administration, Europe has been engaged in a fundamental rethinking of how it should interact with the world and where its priorities lie. Defense \u2013 both from Russia and with greater independence from the U.S. \u2013 has come out as a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steps are in the works at breakneck speed \u2013 at least by European Union standards \u2013 to create means for the bloc\u2019s 27 member countries to invest massively in their armed forces. In Brussels, the Commission, serving as the European Union\u2019s executive branch, is preparing loans of around \u20ac150 billion ($164 billion) for military expenditures by national capitals, expected to contribute to around \u20ac800 billion ($873 billion) in new military investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The package of new loans alone would exceed Russia\u2019s annual defense budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\u2019s perhaps even more remarkable is how little opposition it faced. Member countries\u2019 governments have, in the past, jealously guarded their national competencies against the EU, and defense was long seen as solidly a prerogative of the national governments. Additionally, fiscally frugal countries, first and foremost the Netherlands and Germany, have long been opposed to loans and the idea of taking on debt. Both seem to be changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the perception here in Europe growing that the continent is now on its own, calls for greater financial flexibility and, crucially, deeper integration have become louder. High-ranking officials in national governments, the EU and even the U.K. have called it a pivotal and historic moment and echoed these desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany, which alongside France is seen as a leading figure in Europe due to its position as the EU\u2019s largest country and biggest economy, now looks set to step up into a leadership role. Speaking before the country\u2019s parliament on Tuesday, Merz said that his country\u2019s rearmament could only be \u201ca big first step toward a European defense community.\u201d Its armed forces are already deeply integrated with those of the Netherlands, with all three Dutch combat brigades now placed under German divisional command and the German Navy\u2019s Sea Battalion being under Dutch leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the U.K.\u2019s foreign secretary teamed up with his EU counterpart in an opinion piece published Tuesday morning that implored that in this \u201conce-in-a-generation moment for European security,\u201d Britain and the EU must work closely together because \u201cwhen it comes to keeping our continent safe, Europe cannot afford to be less than the sum of our parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron has rewarmed his country\u2019s offer of sharing its nuclear arsenal with other European countries as a replacement for a possibly faltering U.S. nuclear umbrella. France is the only EU country with its own nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At present, the U.S. has nuclear weapons based in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, as well as Turkey, which are seen as providing a major deterrent to Russian aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The French proposal isn\u2019t new, but with Trump calling NATO\u2019s functioning as a mutual defense alliance into question, it has fallen onto much more receptive ears this time around. Poland, for its part, has said it is \u201ctalking seriously\u201d with France about its proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the Trump administration expected to disengage from Europe, bloc leaders appear to be serious about banding together on defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":118053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,46,11,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3463],"class_list":["post-69651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JU3L226QZVCBJI2UCVMDTZKZXY","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2025\/03\/18\/germany-preps-constitution-change-to-finance-historic-defense-uptick\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n