This morning, Matthew Vella from Malta Today, quoted (vide link below) my opinion piece, which featured on the Malta Business Weekly (vide also link below) last Thursday, as well as the deabte hosted by Albert Gauci Cunningham last weekend. Thank you Matthew. Sincerely appreciated it.
https://maltabusinessweekly.com/well-someone-had-to-say-it/25355/.
I suggest you read both articles. I stand by what I have said. Yes, Ursula von der Leyen along with her EPP peers did endanger European diplomacy by endorsing her party’s call for increased defence spending. What I am referring to here is not defence spending that comes out of the EU Budget. The EU Budget cannot finance defence lethal equipment.
Also, my criticism relates to the novelty of appointing a defence EU Commissioner, when the Treaty is clear on the appointment of the HRVP who takes direction from Heads of State and government, meaning EU capitals. It is a dereliction of duty to omit this important information from the reporting.
Also, my understanding is that the EU 50 bn that will be going to Ukraine are committed funds that will come out of the EU Budget in terms of Commitment Appropriations. Hence, they will not go to finance lethal equipment. And my reference to the 3% of GDP in defence spending relates to my preceding articles, where I said that to replace the USA’s military supplies as a NATO ally, European NATO allies, must pay around 3% of their GDP to cover the same military supplies, if Donald Trump is elected and decides to pull out of NATO.
Yes, NATO was created to keep Americans in Europe, the USSR out and Germans down. Technically, when we analyse what happened in the past, this must cover also those who showered Malta with bombs. And whether you like it or not, the fact is that they were also Germans.
Lastly, Malta can constructively abstain in Council on contributions to security and defence by ensuring its money does not go for lethal equipment but to other areas, such as logistics or medical hubs. Which means we are still respecting our Constitutional neutrality. Proudly, it was me who negotiated that under the European Peace Facility, and which funds come out of bilateral contributions, outside the EU Budget, and not part of the EU’s Own Resources System.
Sincerely, I hope that this is clear now.
