The Italian Government stated that it would be able to transfer existing civilian expenditure to accomplish this objective. However, 2 Italian officials acquainted with the budget debate feel that this may not convince the European Commission or NATO.
Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti at the beginning of this week said that Italy would be able to rise its defence spending to 2% of GDP by the end of 2025 by taking into account the costs of existing defence-related infrastructure specified as the financial police and coastguard.
This would let Italy to avoid expanding defence spending in absolute terms, which would entail the hazard of redirecting resources from another politically delicate services specified as the weakening wellness care strategy in the country.
On Thursday, the lower chamber of the Italian Parliament will debate and vote on the forecasts presented by Giorgetti last week. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposed to Trump that he would increase his defence effort to revive American-European cooperation and facilitate an agreement on reduced duties.
Will the Italians' book trick work?
However, there are doubts as to whether the European Commission and NATO will accept the accounting trick erstwhile assessing Italy's finances at the end of this year. Rome expects political force at the NATO Summit in June, both from the Trump administration and the European Union to increase the declared amount of defence spending, said anonymously Italian officials in a conversation with POLITICO.
They added that it is possible for NATO and the European Commission to challenge the legal justification for this move. Although Rome's current arguments are solid, officials have added that the accounting criteria applied by NATO and the EU are likely to be reviewed later this year erstwhile both institutions re-evaluate their members' obligations.
— Of course, there will be political force from both NATO and NATO to spend more," said 1 official, noting that the 2% mark is just a "baseline level".
As a result, it is possible that Rome will be forced to deplete another budgets in order to rise fresh defence funds. It can besides initially accomplish the 2% mark and then gradually reduce this amount to focus on the "maintenance" of its armed forces.
However, the authoritative quoted above besides stressed that creative accounting was carefully designed to withstand legal control. Although the force will be ‘inescapable’, Rome can only spend a tiny amount which is more “acceptable to Americans”. It plans to do so by buying, for example, US weapons systems and spending comparatively little on personnel and alleged dual-use goods or goods which are besides utilized for purposes another than defence purposes.
Trump's demands
Defence spending has become Rome's main priorityBecause Washington's commitment to Europe is becoming increasingly uncertain. United States president Donald Trump demands much higher spending than NATO allies. Last week Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni included an increase in Italian defence efforts in her Trump offer. This is intended to stimulate American-European cooperation and to conclude a tariff simplification agreement.
At the same time, this issue has become politically toxic. The strong emphasis on arms in Europe was very unpopular in Italy, which is facing a fresh circular of savings erstwhile the government is trying to stabilise its finances. Italy is 1 of the EU's lowest defence spending countries, which last year was only 1.49 percent of GDP. They are besides 1 of respective EU countries which Brussels strictly ordered to reduce the deficit after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commission has proposed to exempt up to 1.5% of GDP of fresh defence spending per year from deficit calculations. However, last week Giorgetti told Italian legislators that the government would not accept this option.
