{"id":370809,"date":"2024-06-18T15:02:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T13:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/06\/18\/nato-spesa-pil-difesa-rapporto-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-07-09T16:26:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T14:26:59","slug":"italy-is-among-8-nato-countries-that-have-not-yet-reached-the-2-percent-defense-spending-threshold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/06\/18\/italy-is-among-8-nato-countries-that-have-not-yet-reached-the-2-percent-defense-spending-threshold\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy is among 8 NATO countries that have not yet reached the 2 percent defense spending threshold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – In February, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg<\/strong> said<\/a> that the number\u00a0of Atlantic Alliance members able to meet the 2 percent target for defense spending relative to GDP would rise to 18. Only four months later, the new\u00a0Defense Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2024)\u00a0report<\/a> released late yesterday evening (June 17) shows that\u00a0there are 23 out of 32 countries that have exceeded the minimum threshold<\/strong> (Iceland is excluded from the statistics, as is the only member without an army), up from 11 in 2023. Italy is now in the minority – one of 8 members below the bar -with 1.49 percent in defense spending<\/strong>, up 0.3 percentage points in the last year.<\/p>\n

\"Jens<\/a>
From left: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and former U.S. President Donald Trump (Nov. 14, 2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“European allies and Canada are\u00a0stepping up the effort and assuming their share of joint responsibility in protecting all of us<\/strong>,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg<\/strong>\u00a0said to\u00a0U.S. President Joe Biden<\/strong> during yesterday’s White House conversation, which took stock of the Atlantic Alliance’s spending targets. The numbers of the 2024 show that of the 23 NATO countries above the 2 percent target, 16 are also EU members<\/strong> (Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and Hungary), while<\/strong>\u00a0four are\u00a0candidates for EU membership<\/strong> (Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Turkey). Given that Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta are not part of\u00a0the Atlantic Alliance, there are seven\u00a0other EU member states still not aligned<\/strong> (besides Italy,\u00a0Belgium, Croatia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain) along with Canada (with 1.37 percent). Of the NATO members that now meet the minimum criteria for defense spending on GDP, four\u00a0are above 3 percent (Greece, Latvia, the United States, and Estonia), and Poland reaches 4.12 percent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n