(Adnkronos) – Italy is prepared to boost its defence spending to hit Nato’s 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) threshold but to do so needs more leeway on European Union budget rules on energy, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday.
“We are ready to increase defense spending and we want to reach the 5% of GDP threshold,” Tajani said at a Nato foreign ministers meeting in Sweden’s southern city of Helsingborg.
“But at the European level, we need greater flexibility in the energy sector,” he continued.
“For Italy, it is essential that the same rules apply to both defense and energy during this difficult time for the European economy and for every economy around the world,” Tajani added.
The European Commission has however rejected calls from Italy for more lenient budget rules on energy-related spending, saying EU countries can use existing resources and tools such as the Cohesion Policy or Next General EU to mitigate the impact of Middle East turmoil amid the United States-Israel war against Iran.
Italy is especially vulnerable to disruptions caused by the Iran conflict due to its high dependence on imported energy.
In a diplomatic escalation with Brussels, premier Giorgia Meloni wrote to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday warning that without more flexible buget rules on energy-related spending Italy might shun the bloc’s SAFE defence fund.
SAFE (Security Action for Europe) is a joint borrowing scheme underwritten by the EU budget to ramp up the bloc’s defence capabilities and help member states hit the spending target of 5% of national GDP by 2035 adopted by Nato members.
SAFE loans can be paid back over 10 years at low interest rates and the scheme allows agreements with non-EU countries such as Britain and Turkey which have defence equipment which the bloc is interested in.
Italy reached Nato’s 2 percent benchmark in 2025, largely through accounting changing and has committed to invest 3.5 percent of GDP in defence by 2035 and a further 1.5 percent in critical infrastructures, resiliance and other security-related areas. In move, criticised by the opposition, the rightwing government has pledged to earmark over 12 billion euros to hike defence spending by 0.5% of GDP by 2028.
