Eduardo González
People’s Party Group in Congress asked the Government to promote a restructuring of the European arms industry to improve military capacity and increase aid to Ukraine and to make “the necessary adjustments” in the next General State Budget (PGE) to advance in the objective of reaching two percent of GDP for Defense, taking into account that “Russia invests 7.1% of its GDP” in this area.
In a non-law Proposal presented on February 29 for debate in the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Popular Parliamentary Group recalls that, “on February 24, two years passed since the beginning of the brutal and unjustified large-scale invasion. scale of Ukraine by Russia.”
The motion – presented by Esteban González Pons, Carlos Floriano, Pablo Hispán and another dozen MPs – recalls that “the terrible, deplorable and inhuman acts in this war show, more and more, that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is willing to everything in exchange for undermining freedom.” “We cannot forget that Putin’s regime attacks freedom of expression, the rights and freedoms of people, democracy, the rule of law and that it persecutes anyone who questions or shows the slightest resistance both in Russia and in the countries around it”, while “Ukraine is a State that has the right to choose its future and that has identified itself with European values”, it continues.
“More than two years after the start of this invasion of Ukraine, the support from the international community has been unquestionable and will continue to be so because Putin cannot and should not win,” says the PP. “The support that has been given to Ukraine in the military, political, financial and humanitarian spheres has been key for Ukraine to resist this war,” the text continues. “However, the military aid committed to Ukraine is arriving slowly and time in this war is what will make the difference, since Russia invests 7.1% of its GDP in Defense,” it adds.
For this reason, the non-law Proposal asks the Government to reiterate “the condemnation of the brutal and unjustified large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.” that condemns “the forced and illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus” and that supports the ten-point peace plan of the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and promotes “support for it in Ibero-American countries.”
Likewise, the motion urges Pedro Sánchez’s Executive to support the initiative of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to use Russia’s financial assets that have been frozen “to reinforce the economic and military resistance of Ukraine,” and to “propose, within the European Union, a restructuring of the arms industry that would allow increasing aid to Ukraine and improving the EU’s military capacity.” Finally, the PP recommends that the Government “make the necessary adjustments in the next PGE to advance the objective of investing 2% of GDP in Defense.”
In July 2022, the Congress approved a proposed resolution of the PP agreed with the PSOE to promote the increase in the Defense budget in order to place it at 2% of the GDP, in line with what was decided during the NATO Summit held in June of that year in Madrid. The objective is part of the so-called Wales Commitment, approved at the 2014 NATO Summit and in which States were urged to “move forward” towards 2% over a period of ten years (therefore, in 2024). The commitment of the President of the Government during the Madrid Summit was to reach that percentage in 2029, five years after the date established in 2014.
