this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
132 points (97.8% liked)

Europe

4483 readers
2000 users here now

News and information from Europe ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.

founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
 

Under the current proposal, the โ‚ฌ150 billion loan fund can be used only for procurement within Europe.

The draft proposal released yesterday shows that the French have prevailed. The headlines in Europe proclaimed that the decision excludes the US, UK and Turkish arms industries from European procurement in the billions of euros, but Israel too will be outside the fence.

According to the proposal, 65% of the cost of procurement of defense systems must be spent in countries in EFTA (the European Free Trade Association), which consists of the EU countries plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein, and also Ukraine.

The remaining 35% can be spent in other countries, but only if they have signed a security and defense partnership agreement with the EU. South Korea, Japan, and the UK are expected to sign such agreements, but the US is not, because of the fear that they will not allow countries to bar the sale of certain weapons systems.

Israel and its defense companies are liable to find themselves torn between the EU requirements and the security alliance with the US, which will prevent the signing of such a strategic agreement and deny them billions of euros in potential sales. The EU plan also excludes the possibility of European countries buying weapons systems entirely designed in a country that is not in EFTA or has not signed an agreement.

top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] Ekybio@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago

Damn thats some really good news for once!

[โ€“] the_swagmaster@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 day ago

Fuck the Israelis, they don't need any more funding for their invasion.

As for other places, I'm glad they are still letting some money go outside the EU. Hopefully this results in joint development of stuff rather than reliance on those external partners

[โ€“] I_quote_Seinfeld_a_lot@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Wait, the news said last night that the passus about shunning US arms industry was ultimately removed from the EU resolution's last draft. Now here's another article claiming it's in, plus even extended to include Israel? None of the news sources I found actually link to the freakin' EU papers they are all talking about.

The white paper ( https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/document/download/30b50d2c-49aa-4250-9ca6-27a0347cf009_en?filename=White+Paper.pdf ) only contains "Israel" in one place and it's not about where to spend money.

Can someone guide me to the actual, final, real, true statement the EU made?

[โ€“] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Currently it is still in the planning phase. The source of the article I posted is an Israeli newspaper.

[โ€“] federalreverse@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Would you mind adding the subtitle of the article to make that clearer even for those who don't click through: "Under the current proposal, the โ‚ฌ150 billion loan fund can be used only for procurement within Europe."

(Also, tbh, the authors writing an article about Israel being excluded is kind of a misleading, as Israel is not special here. Ivory Coast and Paraguay are also excluded, seeing as they're not EU members.)

[โ€“] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Added. The article also contained 'draft proposal' so it is not final.

It is significant because Turkey was mentioned but not Israel and they kind of belong to the same group.

Ivory and Paraguay are not big arms dealers. Israel however sells a massive amount of weapons to the EU

[โ€“] federalreverse@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Added

Thanks - however! I actually thought you could just update the title to this: "EU defense budget plan excludes Israel's arms industry | Under the current proposal, the โ‚ฌ150 billion loan fund can be used only for procurement within Europe."

(Of course, ideally people should read the article before commenting. But we all know that's not necessarily the case.)

Turkey was mentioned

Oh, shoot, sorry. Missed that, thanks for the correction.