Rapid legislation targeted: Baerbock praises agreement on Bundeswehr special funds

Rapid legislation targeted
Baerbock praises the agreement on the Bundeswehr special fund

On the occasion of the Ukraine war, the Bundeswehr should also become more powerful. After a long tug of war over the structure of the planned 100 billion euro special fund, things should go very quickly after the agreement has been reached.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed the agreement on the main features of the planned EUR 100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr. It is “a good compromise where we ensure that NATO can rely on us,” said the Greens politician on Deutschlandfunk. At the same time, “the great challenge of cyber defence, which we also have to tackle massively”, has been legally anchored.

The Union had insisted that the special fund be used exclusively for the Bundeswehr. The Greens in particular wanted the money to be used to finance cyber defense and support for partner countries. On this point of contention, it has now been agreed that measures for cyber security, civil protection and the stabilization of partner countries will also be taken – but “financed from the federal budget”, i.e. not from the special fund.

The Union and the coalition had agreed on the legal basis for the special fund late on Sunday evening after weeks of wrangling. Baerbock explained that a joint concept is being developed on the subject of cyber defense as part of the national security strategy. “Of course, funds would also be made available for this – and in larger sums”.

The Foreign Minister emphasized that in the last few weeks it had been established “that we have massive gaps in terms of our ability to defend ourselves and, above all, our ability to form alliances (…).” “And that we have to work on our defense capability as soon as possible in order to ensure trust (…) in the alliance.” Therefore, the next few years would have to be used to maintain alliance and defense capability. “It was important to me to enshrine this in the Basic Law. And at the same time, we enshrined cyber resilience in the Upgrade Act,” said Baerbock.

A fifth must go into ammunition

Satisfied tones also came from the Union after the agreement. “There is the possibility that we will complete the legislative process this week,” said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in the same program: “That can happen very quickly now, because the essential points have been agreed.”

Then the list with the exact order plans for tanks, aircraft, ships and other Bundeswehr equipment, which is part of the legislative process, will also be made public, Dobrindt explained. According to Lambrecht, it covers the entire spectrum: she spoke of night vision devices, radio devices and heavy transport helicopters. For ammunition alone, there is a need of 20 billion euros for the obligations in NATO.

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