BERLIN, May 15 (Xinhua) -- German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Tuesday rejected calls for an increase in funds made available to the German armed forces (Bundeswehr).
Speaking at the start of closely-watched budgetary consultations in the federal parliament (Bundestag), Scholz argued that Germany would still be able to fulfill its international commitments without having to agree to continuous increases in national defense spending. "A defense policy concept is not good, just because it is expensive," the German Social Democrat (SPD) told delegates.
Scholz thereby rebuffed a recent plea by Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen for greater military expenditure. The issue has become the source of a heated conflict in the governing "grand coalition" between the SPD on the one side and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) on the other.
The finance minister highlighted on Tuesday that Germany would spend a total of 173 billion euros (205.6 billion U.S. dollars) on defense between 2019 and 2022 under his department's budgetary proposal. However, the figure still falls significantly short of the official goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) set by NATO for its members.
The United States has leveled sharp criticism at Berlin for purportedly failing to pull its weight as a NATO member. Hostile comments by its President Donald Trump have added to growing strains on the transatlantic relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) urging the European Union (EU) to reduce its reliance on the United States for security needs in the future.
Scholz consequently urged EU member states to cooperate even more closely on security and economic policy in order to ensure the autonomy and influence of the bloc. "Europe is the most important national concern for Germany," he said.
According to the SPD politician, German citizens were less worried about the dominance of the EU over national government than its weakness in the wider world. Schulz emphasized that Germany was reliant on a "successful European Union" and highlighted the recent U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord and the imposition of protectionist tariffs by Trump in this context.
Addressing the issue of a funding gap left by the departure of Britain from the EU, the finance minister expressed confidence that even a contribution of only "1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the world's largest trading bloc" would suffice to assemble a significant budget. At the same time, Scholz denied claims that Berlin was winding down its own level of federal public expenditure in Germany under the latest budgetary proposals.
"Not all investments planned by the federal government are already declared as such in the finance plan," Scholz noted. He stressed that changes in the distribution of fiscal responsibilities between the federal and state level of government would not result in a fall in total public spending.
