“Measures to reduce military spending: reduction of the armed forces, suspension of contracts for the major Special Arms Programmes, withdrawal of military R & D and reduction of the Spanish armed forces abroad.

They can save between EUR 7 billion and 8 billion a year, an amount that is not small to alleviate public finance indebtedness and the public deficit. Reducing military spending would be an important step towards getting the Spanish economy out of the current crisis.” Here, in a clear and forceful way, is the content of the recent report by Pere Ortega, a member of the Delás Peace Study Centre (Justice I Pau). Military spending in Spain 2012. Ortega's work is entitled 'The Possibility of Reducing the Crisis'.

The Spanish Government makes deaf ears

However, the Spanish Government is turning a deaf ear to these arguments. Thus, almost at the same time as the publication of this report, on 19 September, the Spanish Congress allowed the Ministry of Defence to grant an extraordinary credit of almost EUR 1.8 billion, in order to “fine-tune” it in the arms industry. The Navarro PP and the UPN MEP voted in favour of the House’s decision. 65% of these funds will be allocated to the outstanding invoices of the Eurofighter programme. Spain, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom participate in the programme. A further EUR 242 million will be allocated by the Spanish Government for the purchase of Leopard fighting trolleys from Santa Barbara, EUR 187 million for Navania Navy vessels and EUR 76 million for Tigre helicopters from the Eurocopter factory. In addition, the Spanish Government must pay EUR 31 billion up to 2025 for the contracts for these programmes, the EC has reported.

Because it's not a cough of goats in the middle of the night, let's remember what former Secretary of State for Defence, Constantine Méndez, said at the end: “We should not adopt systems that we would not use to deal with fighting situations that do not exist today and not with the money that neither then nor now we have.” Méndez admitted that these weapons are of no use since the Eurofigther aircraft, the Tigre helicopters, the Leopard and Pizarro armor and the vast majority of warships have not come to the places where the Spanish armed forces, such as Afghanistan, Lebanon or Libya, have participated.

How to reduce the deficit and indebtedness

It is obvious: if we want to give a respite to public accounts as the deficit and public debt are reduced, one of the solutions is to reduce military spending. In this respect, the report asks a direct question: Is it necessary to maintain the armed forces of 130,000 members? Several European countries, such as Germany or Italy, already have plans to reduce the armed forces. Why is Spain not following that path? “Why does Spain need an army of 130,000 soldiers? Isn’t half or one-third enough?” The report does not seek to increase the number of unemployed, on the contrary, it introduces a new study in making certain adjustments that affect the transition of a large number of military authorities to the reserve and resettlement of soldiers in public functions.

Another aspect highlighted in the report is that the large arms contracts (PEAS) should be suspended, as these contracts (Eurofighter, A400M, Tigre helicopters, Leopard and Pizarro armour, submarines, fragatas, warships, etc. ). They last until 2025. In order to alleviate the disadvantages that this measure could cause and the damage caused to the military industry, a major study would be needed for the transformation of the military industry and its return to civilian production. Furthermore, the implementation of the PEAS dismantling measure would mean the disappearance of military R & D aid and an annual saving of EUR 1 billion, which is the amount granted to military companies to develop their last armas.Por, another option to reduce military spending is the withdrawal of Spanish troops from
abroad. With this measure, the government would save some EUR 860 million, a figure which costs each year the sending of troops to other parts of the Peninsula.