French President Emmanuel Macron urged European nations to significantly boost their annual defense spending to exceed 3 percent of GDP during remarks made on Sunday, following his participation in an emergency summit on Ukraine in London.
While Baltic nations have long advocated for military spending to reach at least 3 percent of GDP and U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a 5 percent target, this marks the first occasion where the French leader has specified a concrete figure.
“For the past three years, the Russians have been spending 10 percent of their GDP on defense. We need to prepare what comes next, with an objective of 3 to 3.5 percent of GDP,” Macron stated in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro.
France currently allocates 2.1 percent of its GDP to military expenditures each year—just surpassing NATO’s 2 percent benchmark, a threshold that Paris only achieved last year.
As Europe navigates the implications of Washington’s evolving Ukraine strategy—where the U.S. appears to be shifting focus away from Europe and leaning toward rapprochement with Russia—concerns over NATO’s long-term viability have intensified.
In response, European nations are striving to strengthen their defense capabilities while also aligning with the Trump administration’s emphasis on equitable burden-sharing within the alliance.
A European Council summit centered on defense and Ukraine is scheduled for Thursday, where EU leaders are expected to explore mechanisms to finance expanded military budgets.
To facilitate a substantial increase in European defense spending, Macron called on the EU to reallocate funds from cohesion programs and other existing financial instruments that remain underutilized.
“We need to give a mandate to the Commission to use innovative funding. That means either common borrowing, or the European Stability Mechanism … in a first instance we need €200 billion to be able to invest,” he asserted.
Macron also suggested that France may introduce a revised defense budget, despite facing obstacles due to his lack of a parliamentary majority.
“We will have to review and increase [the seven-year military planning law],” he noted. “The question is: Do we need more national funding? How do we better use our European funding?”
NATO leaders are anticipated to propose an increase to the alliance’s current 2-percent spending goal during a summit in June at The Hague. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte indicated during the Munich Security Conference, held from February 14-16, that the new target would be “significantly more” than 3 percent.