(Adnkronos) – Italy must “do more” to hit the target for European Nato members of 2% of GDP on defence and seek to exempt security spending from European Union fiscal rules, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday.
“We Italians too must do more to reach at least 2% of GDP in defence spending,” Tajani told Italy’s Mattino Cinque News.
“We must try to escape the (EU) stability pact for issues related precisely to guaranteeing our security, which is a priority,” Tajani said.
The current target for European Nato members of 2% of GDP on defence by 2024 was agreed in 2014, when only three countries (the US, UK and Greece) were spending more than 2% of GDP on defence.
By 2024, 23 out of the 32 Nato members are expected to achieve the 2% target but the US has called on Nato allies to spend 5% of GDP.
