In Helenów close Warsaw there was a gathering of defence ministers of Group E5 – Germany, large Britain, France, Poland and Italy, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish . The E5 group is composed of defence ministers of the states, which in NATO spend the most resources on defence. A erstwhile gathering in this format was held in November 2024 in Berlin.
The main issue raised at the gathering was the request of the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP. This proposal was welcomed coolly by European leaders who considered it unrealistic and possibly destabilising to their economies.
President Trump argues that, in the face of the expanding threats from Russia and another global challenges, much more investment in defence is needed. He stressed that the United States has been suffering disproportionately advanced safety costs within NATO for years and anticipate greater financial commitment from European allies. In consequence to criticism from European allies, president Trump suggested the anticipation of introducing economical sanctions against countries that would not meet NATO's fresh financial requirements. This proposal met with additional opposition and was considered an effort to exert force on the sovereign associate states of the Alliance.
In the end, no agreement was reached at the summit to rise minimum defence spending to 5% of GDP. However, it has been established that associate States will proceed to step up efforts to gradually increase their investment in defence, aiming at a level of 2% of GDP, as previously agreed by NATO.
The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, noted that reaching this level of spending would mean spending more than 40% of the national budget on defense, which he considered unrealistic. Italy's Guido Crosetto, stressed that although Italy plans to increase investment in defence, it is hard to scope 5% of GDP. French minister Sébastien Lecornu pointed out the request to invest in security, which includes not only conventional military spending, but besides cybersecurity and combating terrorism. Kosiniak-Kamysz stressed that Poland is already spending more than 3% of GDP on defence and plans to further increase these spending, but reaching 5% of GDP would require crucial changes in the state budget. The British defence minister, Ben Wallace, noted that the United Kingdom meets NATO's current defence spending commitments and is ready to gradually increase them, but doubling these expenditures in the short word is not realistic
In the context of these discussions, it is worth looking at Poland's commitments to defence spending in fresh years. Our country has consistently increased its military spending, becoming 1 of the leaders among NATO countries in terms of the percent of defence spending in GDP.
In 2022 the Polish government announced that defence spending would scope 2.4% of GDP, well above NATO's minimum requirements of 2% of GDP. According to information from the Ministry of Defence, the planned expenditure was to consist of budgetary and non-budget resources from the Armed Forces Support Fund.
In 2023 further increase in defence spending was planned to 4.1% of GDP. However, at the budget stage, this rate reached 3.23% of GDP, which was inactive a evidence amount of PLN 110.3 billion, which is 50.1% higher than the year before. However, it should be noted that any of this growth has been offset by inflation of 11.4%. In 2024, the Polish government planned to allocate about 4.2% of GDP to defence, which would account for little than PLN 160 billion. However, the implementation of these plans has encountered difficulties. According to the September 2024 information, the expenditure from the Armed Forces Support Fund was to be little than planned, meaning that little than 4% of GDP was spent on defence.
Despite these challenges, Poland continues its ambitious plans to increase defence spending. As much as 4.7% of GDP is planned for this intent in 2025, which would represent a crucial increase compared to erstwhile years. However, the implementation of these plans will depend on many factors, including the efficiency of spending funds from the Armed Forces Support Fund.
