Thanks to a special fund, Germany will invest EUR 100 billion in its armed forces
When asked about criticism from Poland that agreed with substitutes for Polish supplies to Ukraine had not yet been delivered, he said: “to be honest, we were quite surprised.”
We are in talks with all our partners from Eastern Europe and we want to treat the talks with Poland as seriously as with the Czech Republic and Slovakia – said the German chancellor.

Since 2010, the Bundeswehr has been structurally underfunded. The lack of investment has limited our overall defense capabilities, the Chancellor emphasized. – Therefore, shortly after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I proposed a special Bundeswehr fund for EUR 100 billion to change this state of affairs once and for all. The fact that we now have a cross-party agreement on this special fund sends an unequivocal signal: the security of Germany and our allies will be significantly strengthened, he stressed.

The chancellor expressed his lack of understanding for the criticism expressed at home and abroad for the lack of military support for Ukraine. “We’ve delivered the weapons and we’ll deliver more of them,” Scholz said in an interview. “These orders are in progress,” he added, referring to a supply of heavy weapons agreed with the industry.

When asked about criticism from Poland that the agreed substitutes for Polish supplies to Ukraine had not yet been delivered, Scholz said: “To be honest, we were quite surprised by this. Poland is as serious as it is with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “

With the Czech government, which “immediately delivered the T72 tanks to Ukraine,” “a precise agreement was reached as to what and when to deliver them.”

Poland disappointed with Germany

Warsaw accuses the German government of “breaking promises”, and wrote “Die Welt” over the weekend. The newspaper added that Poland gave Ukraine about 240 T-72 tanks, and in return was to receive the latest Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, but so far Germany has not donated the weapons. “We are very disappointed” – commented Andrzej Duda last week in an interview with “Die Welt”.

Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak also referred to the matter, stating in a radio interview that “Germany had been building Putin’s army for decades, and now it makes statements that are not followed by any actions.”

“It is not known exactly what was agreed in the agreements between Berlin and Warsaw, but the Bundeswehr itself has only a few Leopard 2A7s, therefore, according to the statements of the German authorities, fast delivery to Poland is impossible” – explained “Die Welt”.

As a result, criticizing Germany has become not only the domain of politicians from the ruling camp, but it “went far beyond the PiS environment” – noted “Die Welt”. “Polish society is disappointed with Berlin’s shaky, difficult to understand policy during the Ukrainian crisis,” the newspaper wrote.

EUR 100 billion for the Bundeswehr

The ruling coalition of the SPD, the Greens, and the FDP agreed with the opposition CDU / CSU union over the weekend on the details of a special fund for the Bundeswehr, which is to amount to EUR 100 billion, the Tagesschau portal informs.

“The talks have been successfully concluded,” both sides said on Sunday evening in Berlin, after more than three hours of negotiations with the federal finance ministry.

As Tagesschau reminds, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced the creation of a special fund worth EUR 100 billion three days after the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 27. The money is to be spent on increasing the regular defense budget in a few years.

Together we will ensure that the Bundeswehr will be strengthened with additional investments of EUR 100 billion in the coming years – confirmed Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). He added that the so-called NATO’s two percent target (spending 2 percent of GDP annually on defense) will be achieved “within a few years”.

Even before the parliamentary holidays, an accelerated plan of procurement of weapons for the army is to be implemented. In addition, the government is to prepare a strategy to strengthen security in the cyber and information space.

“Negotiations with the opposition EU were necessary because a special fund is to be included in the constitution,” emphasizes Tagesschau and explains that the amendment to the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag and Bundesrat, and the government coalition is unable to vote it alone. However, together with the Union, it has a two-thirds majority of the votes required to approve a special fund financed by debt in the Basic Law.

The contentious point of the discussion was the determination of the purpose for which the special fund would be allocated. The Union wanted it to serve only the Bundeswehr’s purposes. “On the other hand, the Greens insisted that the $ 100 billion should also be used to finance cyber defense and support for partner countries,” describes Tagesschau.