Skip to content

Cart

Your cart is empty

Article: Germany uses accounting tricks to reach NATO spending target, Spiegel reports

Germany uses accounting tricks to reach NATO spending target, Spiegel reports

Germany uses accounting tricks to reach NATO spending target, Spiegel reports

PHOTO CAPTION: German Army soldiers conduct a MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) to tactically clear buildings during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) deployment at Townsville Field Training Area (TFTA), Townsville, Australia, July 23, 2023. (U.S. Army photos by Spc. Mariah Aguilar via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

 

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government is using "accounting tricks" to meet NATO's 2% military spending target in 2024, Spiegel news magazine said on Friday, citing evidence from an internal finance ministry document.

According to its report, expenditures by seven government ministries, the chancellery of Olaf Scholz, and both houses of parliament are being counted as contributions to defence spending.

The biggest single contribution - 11.2 billion euros ($11.78 billion) - comes from the finance ministry, the report says, adding that the sum includes 4.5 billion euros in interest payments, which the ministry justifies by saying that military equipment was purchased with debt.

The cost of government planes and pension payments to former members of the National People's Army of the communist German Democratic Republic, which was reunfied with then West Germany in 1990, are also being counted as contributions, the report says.

The finance and defence ministries were not immediately available to provide comment on the report.

In August, a source told Reuters the government had retreated from a plan to legally commit itself to meeting NATO's 2% target on an annual basis, only sticking to the pledge averaged out over five years.

($1 = 0.9510 euros)



(Reporting by Friederike Heine; editing by John Stonestreet)

MORE FROM THE

OAF NATION NEWSROOM

China says sends fighter jets to warn US Navy plane in Taiwan Strait

China says sends fighter jets to warn US Navy plane in Taiwan Strait

China said Thursday it had sent fighter jets to monitor and warn a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft that flew through the Taiwan Strait. Tap for the full brief.

Read more
US must be ready for simultaneous wars with China and Russia, bipartisan panel says

US must be ready for simultaneous wars with China and Russia, bipartisan panel says

The United States must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization pro...

Read more
#3 Liquid error (layout/theme line 179): Could not find asset snippets/back-in-stock-helper.liquid