EU Defence news - Portugal Defence projects to increase its annual investment to 1 billion euros by 2029 “without jeopardizing public accounts”. The chart below shows the difference between Portugal’s actual expenditure in Defence and what was planned in the State Budget between 2014 and 2024.
While Portugal’s current Defence budget is an annual investment of 300 million euros, the president of public holding company, IdD Portugal Defence, is optimistic that Portugal will not have to resort to EU loans for Defence since there is no significant advantage for Portugal to resort to SAFE loans.
The EU SAFE programme (Security Action for Europe) is a credit line that can reach up to 150 billion euros with long maturities of 45 years, however the difference in interest rates is currently very small and the beneficiary country even loses flexibility in managing its public debt, according João Moreira Rato, former president of Portugal’s Treasury and Public Debt Management Agency – IGCP.
Portugal’s defense industry has a diversified economic activity that encompasses 40 sectors, with 380 companies that employ around 40,000 employees.
According to the most recent data from Portugal Defence, the industry accumulated sales of 4.75 billion euros in 2019. Asked about the possible outcome of the NATO Summit in June, in which Defence investment in the EU could rise to 3.5% of GDP, the president of IdD Portugal stated that “spending on weapons is necessary”, because “when we are investing in Defence, there is a triple return”.
According to Ricardo Pinheiro Alves, from Portugal’s Ministry of Defence, 2024 was the year when Portugal started investing in Defence, as per the chart below showing the difference between Portugal’s actual expenditure in Defence and what was planned in the State Budget:
