Polish finance minister visits Britain to discuss joint defence funding initiatives

20/03/2025
Politics

Finance Minister Andrzej Domański told Sky News that Europe is undoubtedly seeing an awakening in terms of increasing defence spending. He added that the change in Europe came after the Munich Security Conference.

“Europe has to be present at the peace talks,” said Minister Domański, referring to the ongoing peace talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia.

He expressed the hope that the scheduled conversation between Ukrainian and US presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump would achieve progress towards a lasting peace.

In a live broadcast interview with Sky News, the Polish finance minister admitted that he was pleased with the change that is taking place in Europe regarding arms spending and the commitment of many countries to European security. He also pointed out that the European Commission is working to accelerate joint European investment in the arms industry.

“We have been talking to Minister (Reeves) about various options and we share the view that our taxpayers’ money needs to be spent efficiently and that this efficiency can be increased with new tools (that will allow) the money to be spent more wisely,” Domański said, referring to the possible UK role in rearming Europe.

During a press conference at the Polish Embassy Minister Domański spoke about possible cooperation with Britain on defence and economic fields. He noted that the economic cooperation with Poland is now very good but could be even closer, despite the changes brought about by Brexit.

On 25 February 2025, the UK Prime Minister announced that the country would start spending 2,5 percent of GDP on defence in 2027. In the future, defence spending might rise up to 3 percent of GDP during the next parliament’s term.

Poland spends nearly five percent of its GDP on defence—the highest level among NATO members—and has the third-largest land army in the Alliance, after the US and Turkey.