UK and NATO allies agree to boost spending on defence and related areas to 5% of GDP by 2035
Ambassadors of all 32 alliance member states signed off on the new spending pledge ahead of a major summit of leaders, including Donald Trump, this week, they said.
However, Spain’s prime minister later signalled that his country - which has been resisting the push by allies to expand its already underperforming defence budget to such a level - did not need to comply. . . .
Spain allocated a mere 1.24% of its GDP to defence last year - and is one of the lowest defence spenders in the alliance as a ratio of GDP. . . .
1.5% for related areas, which include infrastructure, cyber security, border protection, supply chain resilience, and broader national security efforts like energy security and tackling smuggling gangs
The date and the wording of the pledge mean that there are no real requirements.
Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, last week said he would not commit to the 5% figure. It prompted efforts to find a compromise in the wording of the agreement that will be endorsed at the summit, according to the Reuters news agency.
It reported that the language around the spending pledge had been tweaked from “we commit” to “allies commit”, allowing Madrid to say the commitment does not apply to all members.
Look at it this way.
For the Germans or the Spanish to add 1% of GDP to natilan defense, allmit takes is an additional 12-16 more hours a year.
Like — 1 hour a month or 1 hour 15 mins everty month.
If by that you mean “You Gaius, understand Europe perfectly, but you buy into their pansy excuses,”
then, Yes, you are correct!
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Interesting tidbit: The Germans consider themselves hardworking.
(Laughs in Lederhosen)
Well somebody had the realy dumb idea that
"German and italy have basically the same economies, so
on paper, they should be able to have ths same currency.
TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE;
The Eurois not a common currency.
The Euro at best, is a welfare scheme. It transfers wealth and income from the stonger economies, like German and the UK to the PIIGS. (That’s why BREXIT happened.)
At worst, it is a price fixing-scheme for currency. Those work out about as well as fixing the price of rent, or fixing the prce of anything else. They tend to last for a few decades and then blow up terribly when the market returns to equilibrium all at once.
I was simply pointing out that the reason German, and Sapin and Italy etc spend lso little on defensse is that tey have decide to take more days off.
They could/should look at it like national service.
“You already work 10-20% less than Americans
Work one extra hour a week and look on it like a national duty.”
By that definition The US economy is a welfare scheme where Texas (43.5 hrs per week), Louisiana (45.8) subsidize Montana (36.3) and Alaska (31.8!). All under the same fixed currency regime.
But are those non-working states not producing less than they otherwise could to do what they can for this country? Why are they relying on Texas so much?
(In case it’s not obvious this is a very unserious take on my part)
TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE; 
