At the end of the informal meeting of EU leaders Feb. 4, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the decision to lift debt rules for defense expenditures. Hjalmar Schacht läßt grüßen.
“I am willing to explore—UvdL said—and will use the full range of flexibilities we have in the new Stability and Growth Pact to allow for a significant increase in defence spending. Furthermore, the second leg would be that we are working with the EIB to increase the flexibility of lending practices. And, of course, we need more private funding, so we need to have a dialogue with the private banking sector, so that it modernises its lending practices.”
