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fullscreen Tanks at a military base in Swietoszow, Poland. Stock photo. Photo: Michal Dyjuk/AP/TT
Use the regional aid as defense aid, the EU Commission urges the member states.
More flexible rules should be able to provide billions for military infrastructure.
According to The Financial Times (FT), the European Commission will contact member states in the coming weeks to explain its more flexible approach to regional aid.
For example, the EU money must be able to be used to strengthen roads and bridges and speed up the production of weapons and ammunition. However, using the regional aid for pure weapons purchases should not be possible.
The idea is that the EU money can be used militarily as long as it contributes to “the general mission of improving regional development”, says a commission spokesman to the FT.
– In my region there is an exercise area that needs to be connected to an airfield, says Olgierd Geblewicz from Polish West Pomerania to the newspaper as an example of what can be supported.
In total, there is almost SEK 4,000 billion in regional support for the budget period 2021-27. However, many EU countries have so far only touched a small part of their money, as they have instead chosen to focus on distributing the EU’s special corona support that was created to boost the economy after the pandemic.