QCEA highlights proposed increase in EU military spending
QCEA have highlighted a proposed 380 per cent increase in the EU budget for external border control
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has spoken out about what it calls the ‘unprecedented levels of funding for border management and military projects’ in the proposed EU budget for the next seven years.
According to QCEA, the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) amounts to a 380 per cent increase in funding for external border control, and up to €21 billion for arms research, development and procurement, as well as another €21 billion for border control.
QCEA asks: ‘Are these our European values?’ and calls for the investment to be made to peacebuilding and human-centred migration policies instead, which, it says, have been proven to work.
They say this approach should be ring-fenced within the seven-year budget framework or ‘the current political climate will be “locked in” for years to come’.
According to QCEA, ‘the impetus’ for the proposed spending comes from ‘perceptions about public attitudes to immigration, fears about Russia and efforts to increase economic growth – including the arms industry’.
QCEA argues that the proposals do not address ‘the root causes of violent conflict, environmental degradation, poor governance and other drivers of migration’ and ‘simplistic’ approaches risk ‘entrenching cycles of violence, fragility and the displacement of people’.
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