The German state will spend 58.6 billion euros on defense in the coming year. Although Federal Defense Minister Lambrecht can also draw from the pots of the special fund, she missed the goal of spending two percent of economic output on the defense budget.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has announced a further increase in the defense budget. In the coming year, the target of spending two percent of economic output cannot be achieved, said Lambrecht in the budget debate in the Bundestag. The defense budget will “grow up in the future,” she said. The federal government will ensure that procurement gaps in the Bundeswehr are actually closed and “that people don’t just talk and chatter,” she said.
It was clear from the outset that even with the 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr, the two percent target could not be achieved immediately, she said. The additional expenditure would have to be “spread over a longer period of time”, the two percent target should be achieved “over five years”.
According to the draft budget, Lambrecht’s ministry can spend 50.1 billion euros in the coming year. That is around 300 million euros less than in the current financial year. In addition to the budget funds, the ministry will have 8.5 billion euros from the “Bundeswehr special fund” at its disposal in the coming year; EUR 8.2 billion of this is intended for procurement.
The special fund approved by the Bundestag with a credit authorization of 100 billion euros is not part of the budget for the Ministry of Defense. If you add it to the budget, the total spending on defense in 2023 is 58.6 billion euros.
The Ministry of Defense is to receive 20.6 billion euros for personnel expenses alone in the coming year – more than for military procurement, facilities and the like, for which a total of 18.7 billion euros are available. More than 1.1 billion euros are to be spent on the procurement of ammunition – around 50 percent more than in the current year.