European rearmament: too little, too expensive, too dependent?
08 October 2025 1:00 pm CEST
Join Prof. Dr. Wolff for his recent insights on European defence economics
Venue
wiiw Seminar Room
Souterrain
Rahlgasse 3
1060 Wien
Description
After three decades of fiscal peace dividends, spending on armaments and defence has been rising significantly since 2022. In a recent study, the author analyses in detail the planned and already approved procurement of armaments in several European countries. Firstly, Russia continues to outspend four European countries in the production of various weapon systems. Secondly, transatlantic tensions are weakening the strength of the US security guarantees. Europe is heavily dependent on the US not only in terms of immediately deployable troops, but also in terms of strategic enablers. Although arms imports from the US are not excessively high overall, dependence on American systems in critical modern capabilities remains a cause for concern. Thirdly, military strategy and technology are evolving rapidly. Military planners need to modernise weapons and strategies while scaling existing and effective systems – a major challenge for often slow and bureaucratic procurement structures. Finally, in addition to financial and technological issues, there are important questions about the control of key companies.
The event will be held in English.
Author
Prof. Dr. Guntram Wolff is a professor of economics at the Solvay Brussels School of ULB. He is also a senior fellow at Bruegel, which he directed from 2013-22. From 2022-24, he was the director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. His research focuses on European integration, climate policy, geo- and defence economics, macro-economics. He regularly advises EU finance ministers and national parliaments and has published in leading journals such as Nature, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal for European Public Policy, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Research Policy. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bonn.