LPresident Emmanuel Macron wants a “reassessment” of the 2019-2025 military programming law to “adjust the means to the threats”, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, he declared on Monday June 13 on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Eurosatory Land Armament Show. “I asked the Minister [des Armées, NDLR] and to the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces to be able to carry out in the coming weeks a reassessment of this Military Programming Law in the light of the geopolitical context”, he affirmed. The Head of State considered that France had “entered a war economy in which I believe we will organize ourselves in the long term” and “in which we can no longer live with the grammar of a year ago”.
Emmanuel Macron began in 2017 a sharp rise in defense credits after years of scarcity. The budget of the Ministry of the Armed Forces will increase again in 2022, to 40.9 billion euros, in accordance with the LPM 2019-2025 which plans to reach 50 billion euros in 2025.
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Civilian companies requisitioned for military reasons
“We did not wait for strategic changes to reinvest,” recalled the Head of State on Monday, but the rise in threats, illustrated by the conflict that has been raging in Ukraine since February 24, poses an “additional requirement to go faster, stronger, at the lowest cost”.
“We still have a lot to do to adapt to the profound transformations that we are going through. And for anyone who doubts the urgency of these efforts, it is enough to look once again at Ukraine, whose soldiers are demanding quality armament and who are entitled to an answer there too from us. insisted the President of the Republic.
“We will make the investment decisions and we will have the requirements that go with it,” he concluded. According to the daily Le Monde, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) plans to propose a legislative text which would make it possible to requisition, in certain circumstances, materials or civilian companies for military purposes, while the war in Ukraine has put highlight the weakness of military stocks in Western countries.
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