Ijab: “Peace Dividend” is over, we need to move fast in the direction of rebuilding our defense capabilities, including by borrowing

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The European Union (EU) must use its own funds to get involved in strengthening the external border, including the construction of infrastructure, this was the opinion of Ivars Ijabs, a member of the European Parliament (EP) and the leader of the list of the party “Latvia’s Development” (LA) for the next EP elections, in an interview with the LETA agency.

The politician emphasized that currently strengthening the external border is one of the priorities. The politician cited an example – the “Interreg” program financed by the European Regional Development Fund. According to Ijab, the program is designed to enable EU member states to cooperate across borders with third countries in order to develop joint infrastructure projects there.

“Initially, the program was intended for peaceful purposes, but now I see no reason why this money cannot be directed to strengthening our border, considering that we have a border with two countries that are, to put it mildly, unfriendly to Europe,” said Ijab.

He noted that many works related to the strengthening and development of the defense industry have been started in this EP convocation, but it is not yet clear how it will be continued. Ijab emphasized that from the initially “brilliant plans” for diverting 100 billion euros to strengthen European defense capabilities, we have come to legislative proposals in which only three of the 100 billion euros remain. In the opinion of a politician, this is absurd.

“Of course, there are also things like the border guard, that is, border guard cooperation, which is already taking place in the form of the EU border guard agency Frontex. The mandate of Frontex to protect the external border is unfortunately very limited. I think one of the priorities of the next EP convocation would be the mandate of Frontex expand, so that they are not only people who register illegal border crossers at the border, but people who protect the border practically,” said the MEP.

He pointed out that it is not Brussels that will guarantee Latvia’s security. Ijab emphasized the need to think about how to motivate other European countries to invest in their security and increase defense budgets. The politician emphasized that there has been a lot of talk about it in the EP, but the member states have been “quite evasive”.

“If in Latvia we are thinking about allocating 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to defense in 2027, Poland is already allocating 4% of GDP to defense, whereas Germany has barely reached 2% of GDP. Then we have to think about the policy of “whips and grains of sugar” to motivate member states to invest in their security and defense,” said the MEP.

He pointed out that the European Investment Bank has so far been seen as the “pocket bank” of the European Commission, which mostly finances green projects. According to Ijab, the current priority is to change the profile of the European Investment Bank so that it can also support defense projects. Another question is whether defense spending should count towards the overall budget deficit ceiling.

“For example, are we allowed to borrow to strengthen the country’s armed forces and our defense capabilities. That’s an important discussion. I think we need to talk about it because Europe has enjoyed the so-called ‘peace dividend’ for a very long time. We have significantly reduced defense budgets. We can, of course, point the finger at Germany or Luxembourg, but also in Latvia 12 years ago, the defense budget was less than 1% of GDP,” the politician emphasized.

He pointed out that the “peace dividend” has ended, and it is necessary to move rapidly in that direction to restore its defense capabilities, including by borrowing. In Ijab’s view, these are matters of economic importance that should be discussed by the next EP in the hope that there will be a change in thinking, understanding that the EU is not a purely civilian organization dealing only with subsidies and regulation, but that it should also be determined in decisions regarding common defense capabilities.