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Both when it comes to defence capabilities and industry capacities, Europe is in a very difficult position, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told Euronews. He pointed to the bloc’s decades-long prioritising of soft power as one reason for this.
His comments come as the European NATO members are ramping up defence spending and Brussels is rolling out policies to bolster the defence industry. While Francken sees progress being made, he warned Europe does not have all the capabilities it needs.
“Europe has been very good at investing in soft power, in social security, and it’s beautiful to have a pension system, to have social welfare systems,” Francken said in an interview at Euronews’ Defence and Space Summit.
“When somebody gets sick, when somebody has lost his job, we have everything. But when there’s war or when there is a hybrid threat, we don’t have anything.”
He noted that when it comes specifically to defence spending, Belgium has long been the bad apple.
“We neglected this for so long, we were like the worst pupil in NATO class,” Francken said, again, referring to the emphasis put on soft power.
“We are the founding father of NATO; we’re the founding father of the EU. I think that we always were there for diplomacy, for soft power, but when we talked hard power in Belgium, everybody was looking in the other direction.”
Belgium reached NATO’s 2% GDP defence spending threshold for the first time in 2025, rising from a low of 0.97% in 2014.
NATO wants that percentage to reach 3.5% by 2035; however, the country will remain at 2% until 2029 due to its challenging budgetary climate. Belgium currently has one of the worst budget deficits in the eurozone.
“Now we doubled the budget; we reached 2%. I know that we add two more, but it’s quite a process. We’re doing so much, but I cannot undo in 18 months of being a minister what has been neglected for 40 years.”
Watch the interview with Theo Francken at the Defence and Space Summit here.