Few European allies meet 3% defence spending mark

Few European allies meet 3% defence spending mark
by AFP Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Mar 3, 2025

Only four NATO countries currently spend more than three percent of output on defence -- a benchmark proposed by France's leader during the latest efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

President Emmanuel Macron called for members of the western alliance to raise military expenditure to between three and 3.5 percent of their GDP.

"For the last three years, Russia has spent 10 percent of its GDP on defence. So we should prepare our next steps," Macron told Le Figaro daily on Sunday.

As European leaders look to ramp up military spending in the face of uncertainty over the US commitment to Ukraine and NATO, here is a guide to how much countries spend on defence across the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

- US: 3.3% -

For decades, European countries have largely left the cost of their security to the United States, and have reduced their military spending.

The United States, which spent around 3.3 percent of its GDP on defence in 2024, has accused Europe of not spending enough on its military.

According to the NATO website, 21 of the 29 countries in the alliance met the minimum threshold of two percent of GDP spending on defence -- a commitment established in 2006 by NATO defence ministers.

- Poland: 4% -

Of NATO's European members, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Greece spend the biggest proportion of GDP on defence.

Poland is far ahead of its allies, allocating four percent of its GDP to defence, followed by the Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, which share borders with Russia.

Greece is in fourth place, contributing just over three percent of its GDP to defence, a high level that reflects its historic tensions with neighbouring Turkey.

Most of the remaining European members of NATO allocate around two percent or slightly more of their GDP to defence.

France currently spends just over two percent of its GDP on defence, but Macron has said the country should increase the amount, and has not ruled out "launching savings products" to support the funding of defence programmes.

- UK, Germany: 2-3% -

Two other countries bordering Russia, Lithuania and Finland, contribute 2.85 percent and 2.41 percent of their GDP respectively.

Denmark, the UK and Germany each contribute between two and three percent.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week pledged to boost UK defence spending to 2.5 percent of the economy by 2027.

In Germany, the two parties hoping to form the next government are planning to plough hundreds of billions of euros into defence and infrastructure when in power, the Bild newspaper reported Sunday.

- Spain: 1.3% -

Seven European NATO countries still have not met the two-percent target, with Spain in last place with a contribution of just 1.28 percent of its GDP to defence.

NATO said in a statement in July 2024 that 23 of its 32 member countries were expected to meet or exceed the two-percent target that year, compared to three in 2014.

European NATO countries spent an estimated total of about $453 billion on defence in 2024, an increase of almost $200 billion from 2014, the organisation said.