THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Germany’s parliament on Tuesday voted in favor of amending the constitution to enable significantly increased defense spending.
The Bundestag decision, 512 to 206, comes amid European governments warming to the idea of taking on new debt for defense following Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The vote solidifies incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s focus on defense issues, made possible by a two-thirds majority of the outgoing parliament that would have been iffy after a new class of lawmakers is seated on March 25.
The landmark vote upended a longstanding taboo against new government debt. Passed with the support of the Green Party in addition to the incoming governing coalition of conservatives and social democrats to reach a two-thirds majority, it changes the constitution to exempt military spending and some infrastructure funding from the country’s strict debt ceiling.
Additionally, it means that a new aid package to Ukraine worth €3 billion ($3.28 billion) could be released by Berlin by the end of this week, the designated chancellor told reporters on Tuesday.
Merz’s position is remarkable: The so-called “debt brake” had been introduced by his own party, which has long been hawkish on balancing the budget. He himself had previously decried attempts to increase government spending by taking new loans. Now, he has led his party through a rapid 180-degree turn. It presents a logical continuation of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left-of-center government, which mobilized massive sums of money in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Spurred on by the crumbling of the transatlantic partnership with the United States under the second Trump administration, Europe has been engaged in a fundamental rethinking of how it should interact with the world and where its priorities lie. Defense – both from Russia and with greater independence from the U.S. – has come out as a top priority.
Steps are in the works at breakneck speed – at least by European Union standards – to create means for the bloc’s 27 member countries to invest massively in their armed forces. In Brussels, the Commission, serving as the European Union’s executive branch, is preparing loans of around €150 billion ($164 billion) for military expenditures by national capitals, expected to contribute to around €800 billion ($873 billion) in new military investments.
The package of new loans alone would exceed Russia’s annual defense budget.
But what’s perhaps even more remarkable is how little opposition it faced. Member countries’ governments have, in the past, jealously guarded their national competencies against the EU, and defense was long seen as solidly a prerogative of the national governments. Additionally, fiscally frugal countries, first and foremost the Netherlands and Germany, have long been opposed to loans and the idea of taking on debt. Both seem to be changing.
With the perception here in Europe growing that the continent is now on its own, calls for greater financial flexibility and, crucially, deeper integration have become louder. High-ranking officials in national governments, the EU and even the U.K. have called it a pivotal and historic moment and echoed these desires.
Germany, which alongside France is seen as a leading figure in Europe due to its position as the EU’s largest country and biggest economy, now looks set to step up into a leadership role. Speaking before the country’s parliament on Tuesday, Merz said that his country’s rearmament could only be “a big first step toward a European defense community.” Its armed forces are already deeply integrated with those of the Netherlands, with all three Dutch combat brigades now placed under German divisional command and the German Navy’s Sea Battalion being under Dutch leadership.
Meanwhile, the U.K.’s foreign secretary teamed up with his EU counterpart in an opinion piece published Tuesday morning that implored that in this “once-in-a-generation moment for European security,” Britain and the EU must work closely together because “when it comes to keeping our continent safe, Europe cannot afford to be less than the sum of our parts.”
And in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron has rewarmed his country’s offer of sharing its nuclear arsenal with other European countries as a replacement for a possibly faltering U.S. nuclear umbrella. France is the only EU country with its own nuclear arsenal.
At present, the U.S. has nuclear weapons based in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, as well as Turkey, which are seen as providing a major deterrent to Russian aggression.
The French proposal isn’t new, but with Trump calling NATO’s functioning as a mutual defense alliance into question, it has fallen onto much more receptive ears this time around. Poland, for its part, has said it is “talking seriously” with France about its proposal.
Linus Höller is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He covers international security and military developments across the continent. Linus holds a degree in journalism, political science and international studies, and is currently pursuing a master’s in nonproliferation and terrorism studies.
