(Adnkronos) – European Union nations should improve coordination on defence spending and work towards a single European defence, according to Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
“As Europeans, we spend a third of the United States’ outlay on defence. But these frequently large sums of money are often spent on the same thing,” Tajani told the Il Giorno della Verita show late Thursday.
“We need to start with coordination. My idea and that of (late premier and media tycoon Silvio ) Berlusconi’s, to create a single European defence, will take years,” Tajani said.
“Meanwhile, let’s start coordinating European spending better,” he added.
The administration of US president Donald Trump “is not wrong” to claim that Europe must spend more on its security, Tajani stated.
“We have always counted on the American ‘umbrella’. We hope they don’t want to close it, but now they say we need to create our own,” he said.
“We will fight – and I believe (defence minister Guido) Crosetto thinks the same as me – to ensure that the (spending) increases concern security as a whole,” Tajani underlined.
