EU accepts Bulgaria's proposal on defence modernisation spending

A procedure will be introduced to exclude military expenditure from the inflation index, Bulgarian Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov announced in Munich, BTA reported. Speaking at the Security Conference, the minister said that Bulgaria had been advocating this position in official EU forums for over a year. "We are pleased that the European Commission and member states have accepted this and we will discuss how to implement the proposal in detail," he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the Commission's intention to exclude defence investment from the budget inflation indices. This means that the inflation criteria that previously prevented defence budgets from increasing will no longer apply," Zapryanov clarified. The minister also noted that it would be reasonable to allocate around 2.5% of GDP to defence.