Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Defense Agency (EDA) today published its annual defense data report for 2022, for the first time including details of defense spending from all EU member states. At a record level of €240 billion, European defense spending for 2022 rose again by 6% on the previous year, marking the eighth consecutive year of growth. 20 of the 27 EU member states have increased defense spending, with six countries increasing defense spending by more than 10%.
European defense spending 2022 – key findings
• Sweden (+30.1%), Luxembourg (+27.9%), Lithuania (27.6%), Spain (19.3%), Belgium (14.8%) and Greece (13.3%) recorded the highest increases in total spending among the EU27 countries .
• A record amount of €58 billion has been allocated to defense investments. Overwhelmingly towards purchasing new equipment, which increased by 7% from the previous year.
• A significant jump in the value of projects managed by the European Defense Agency. With 18 projects starting in 2022 worth more than €76 million, with a total value of €250 million across 46 projects managed by the European Development Agency on behalf of Member States.
High Representative, Vice-President and Head of the European Defense Agency Josep Borrell said: “Our Armed Forces must be ready for an even more demanding era. Adapting to these new realities means first and foremost investing more in defence. The record figure of €240 billion supports Member States' commitment to strengthening European defence. However, we have key capacity gaps and still lag behind other global players in spending. That's why it's not just about spending more on defense, it's also about spending better and together. We must find additional value in our ability to cooperate and seize opportunities to strengthen our armed forces through joint planning, joint projects and joint procurement.
Commitment to investment
The allocation of €58 billion of total defense expenditures to defense investments by the 27 EU member states represents a strong growth of 5.9%. The agreed benchmark of 20% of total spending in this area was exceeded for the fourth year with a total of 24.2% across the EU. Twenty Member States reached this collectively agreed benchmark, with Luxembourg (53.5%), Hungary (48.1%), Greece (42.6%), Finland (37.4%) and Lithuania (34.8%) having the highest allocation of their total defense expenditures to investment. .
Research spending slips
Despite record overall spending, expenditures for defense research and technology (R&T) fell by €200 million compared to the previous year. Only two Member States meet the agreed benchmark of 2% of defense expenditures allocated to research and technology activities, together representing more than 80% of total defense research and technology expenditures. EU cooperative endeavors such as a dedicated EDA framework and funding via the European Defense Fund can bring the EU closer to achieving a defense spending benchmark dedicated to research and technology activities.
The European Defense Agency collects defense data on an annual basis, and has done so since 2006, in line with a decision of the Agency's Ministerial Steering Board of November 2005. The defense ministries of the agency's 27 member states provide the data. The EDA acts as its custodian and publishes the compiled figures in Defense Data booklets and on its website. On 23 March 2023, Denmark joined the agency, allowing for the first time the publication of the European Defense Agency's defense data counting all EU member states. It should be noted that this edition includes Danish defense data for 2022 only. MS datasets have been available since 2006 on the Defense Data Portal on the EDA website.