Macron called for an increase in the EU budget to finance defense, AI and space industry

The EU budget should be increased to finance defense spending, artificial intelligence and the space industry. This statement was made by French President Emmanuel Macron, writes sb.by.

As noted by RIA Novosti, at a press conference following talks with the Prime Minister of Spain in Madrid, the French President said:

- We need to increase the size of the EU budget. No doubt. The last time we did this was during the COVID pandemic.

The event was broadcast in the social networks of the Elysee Palace.

According to Macron, additional money is needed to finance defense, green technologies, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and the space industry.

- “If we don’t increase our budget, then either we won’t meet these costs and we won’t participate in the race for innovation, or we’ll shift responsibility to each country,” he said.

In the latter case, according to Macron, the EU single market risks being fragmented:

- We're going to have 27 space policies, 27 artificial intelligence policies -- that's stupid, because we're not going to have the scale to do that.

At the same time, earlier the leaders of the five EU countries called for reducing by several hundred billion euros the proposal of the European Commission for the next multi-year budget of the EU for 2028-2034, as reported in a joint article by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Prime Ministers of a number of countries - the Netherlands Rob Jetten, Denmark Mette Frederiksen, Austria Christian Stocker and Finland Petteri Orpo. The Commission’s proposal to increase the budget by about 60 percent in nominal terms is unrealistic, both economically and politically. The state of public finances of a number of member countries is also a matter of serious concern. Poland announces record defense spending in 2027

Ireland wants to cut EU budget by €100 billion - 17 countries oppose