The 2025 state budget passed by the parliament on Thursday makes it possible to allocate 4 percent of GDP to defence, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.
“The fact that we will allocate 4 percent of GDP to defence is encouraging,” Nausėda told reporters in Brussels.
“Unfortunately, the previous government talked a lot about our security but even planned to cut the defence budget. We express love to our country through actions, not words, and I believe we’re heading in the right direction,” he added.
The draft budget initially allocated about 2.5 billion euros for defence, or just over 3 percent of GDP. However, the new government increased the 2025 borrowing limit by roughly 800 million euros, and borrowing this full amount could raise defence spending to 4 percent of GDP.
Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas has previously said that defence funding could reach 3.5 percent of GDP.
According to Nausėda, however, the government will have to find ways to maintain fiscal discipline.
“We’ve essentially budgeted 4 percent of GDP for defence, but some of that money has to be borrowed. We’ll probably have to decide how we treat defence spending if, for example, there is a conflict between the 3 percent budget deficit [limit] and our need to borrow,” the president said.
Nausėda also praised the government’s plans to negotiate with the European Commission for an exemption that would allow additional defence funding even if it exceeds the 3 percent GDP budget deficit limit outlined in the Maastricht Treaty.
The new government made only minimal adjustments to the state budget for 2025 because its deficit was already at the limit of 3 percent of GDP and promised to adjust it next year.
In 2025, the state budget will raise 17.98 billion euros in revenue (including EU funds) with expenditure estimated at 23.1 billion euros.
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