Pedro Sánchez announces that Spain will allocate 2% of GDP to security and defence this year

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, appears after the Council of Ministers (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, made an appearance to present the Industrial and Technological Plan for the Security and Defence of Spain and Europe, approved by the Council of Ministers, and announced that our country "will reach 2% of GDP in Security and Defence this year, in 2025."

At a press conference in Moncloa Palace, the head of the Executive pointed out that, to achieve this budgetary investment, "we are going to have to make a significant investment of 10.471 billion euros in addition to that already earmarked for these policies, which will allow us to jump from 1.4% of GDP investment in security and defence in 2024 to 2% in 2025."

"It is an important effort, proportional to the commitment we made in 2014 - with a conservative administration - and to the challenges facing Spain and Europe," he stressed, and it will be achieved "without raising taxes, without touching one cent of investment in the welfare state, and without incurring a higher public deficit."

The Industrial and Technological Plan for Security and Defence will be sent to Brussels for its technical and budgetary foundations to be assessed by NATO and the European Union, aims to "guarantee the security of our country, our fellow citizens and our territory, in a geopolitical and technological context in full swing", "consolidate Spain as a central and reliable member of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance", and "promote a new wave of innovation and reindustrialisation, business and employment - throughout the territory - around dual purpose technologies", which "will allow us to consolidate the excellent state of the Spanish economy and accelerate the modernisation of our productive fabric, which we have singularly begun to implement thanks to European funds".

A Plan for Security and Defence based on five pillars

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, upon his arrival at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa /Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

In order to achieve these objectives, the Plan will be based on five main pillars. "The first will account for 35.45% of the total investment and will be used to improve the working conditions of the troops and sailors, as well as the preparation and equipment of our Armed Forces".

The second pillar, which will account for 31.16% of the investment, will be aimed at developing and acquiring new telecommunications and cybersecurity capabilities. On this point, the President explained that "every year, Spain is the target of more than a thousand cyberattacks on essential services and critical infrastructures" that are not newsworthy, but "affect the operations of our hospitals, our airports, our electricity grid and our companies"; and that, although the most serious have been repelled, "the threat, far from disappearing, is growing every day."

Consequently, "we will invest 3.26 billion euros in modernising our Armed Forces' encrypted telecommunications systems; acquiring new satellites, antennas and radars; strengthening our civilian and military cybersecurity tools; and investing in cloud, 5G, artificial intelligence and quantum computing capabilities." "The aim is to create a digital shield for Spain" and that "our security and our rights are protected against foreign hackers."

In addition, "18.75% of the total will be spent on the manufacture and purchase of new, more effective, efficient and safer defence and deterrence equipment." We will do it, the President explained, "not to attack anyone - Spain is a pacifist country that believes in diplomacy; we will do it to dissuade those who might be thinking of attacking us or attacking Europe." "We will do this," he continued, "so that when a Spanish soldier on a peace mission gets into an armoured vehicle in Lebanon or a frigate in the Strait of Gibraltar, they will feel even safer and know that they have the most advanced technology in the world to do their job and fulfil their objectives.

The fourth pillar, which will account for 16.73% of the total investment and will amount to around 1.75 billion euros, will be aimed at strengthening the dual capabilities of our Armed Forces, so that they can also assist in the management of emergencies and natural disasters. And the last item, 3.14% of the investment, will go to "improving the security conditions of the almost 3,000 troops that make up the 16 peace missions that Spain is currently carrying out abroad, under the flags of the European Union, NATO or the United Nations."

The investment of the Plan is supplemented by adjustments and refunds of credits for previous Special Modernisation Programmes, which represent a 5.23% reduction of the total amount.

"In short, this 10.741 billion euros, distributed in five blocks, will be added to that already invested in previous years, reaching a total figure of 33.123 billion euros in security and defence, i.e., 2% of Spain's GDP."

"Our objective," Pedro Sánchez reiterated, "is to modernise the security and deterrence capabilities of Spain and Europe with a comprehensive 360º perspective, focusing mainly on three things: improving the conditions of our Armed Forces, the modernisation of our equipment, and the development of new technologies, with a priority focus on dual-use applications and devices that can serve both military and civilian purposes."

Financing the Plan without touching a cent of the welfare state

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, appears after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

In his appearance, the head of the Executive stated that we did not choose the current international situation marked by instability and uncertainty, nor did we choose any of the previous crises, "but we did choose how to confront them", and we are doing so "with strategic intelligence, with social justice, with the loyalty of a reliable partner committed to Europe, and with the determination that Spain will emerge from them better than it entered." "We have done so with every crisis we have faced, and we will do so again now," he reiterated.

He also stressed that "this additional investment" in security and defence "will be in line with Spain's interests and the values of the progressive coalition government", which will be materialised in four commitments. "The first of these is that we are going to finance this Plan without touching a cent of the welfare state or affecting the pockets of our citizens."

In this regard, he explained that the bulk of the funding foreseen for 2025 will come from three sources. Firstly, the reorientation of certain items of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, such as the one earmarked for cybersecurity with 1.3 billion euros. Second, from the savings generated by the good performance of the Spanish economy, which in 2024 exceeded the forecasts of the Government and the main economic organisations. And finally, of the margin given by certain items that were included in the 2023 General Budget that are no longer needed.

"With these mechanisms and surpluses, the Government will be able to finance the 2025 fiscal year without compromising social or environmental spending, without undertaking tax increases, and without incurring a higher deficit or public debt"; and while waiting for the European Commission to implement other additional financing mechanisms, as Spain has requested. "Ultimately, we are going to improve our security while continuing to improve our welfare.

It will help increase our GDP by 0.4 to 0.7 points

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during the press conference following the Council of Ministers, where he presented the Industrial and Technological Plan for Security and Defence | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Government's second commitment is that "most of the money mobilised will stay in Spain", so that around 87% of the Plan's investment (some 9 billion euros) will go to Spanish companies and workers in a wide range of sectors and in all communities. "Ultimately, the aim is to turn this security crisis into a new economic stimulus for Spain, based on industry, training and the development of dual-use technologies that serve the security and defence sphere, but which can also be used for applications and opportunities in civilian sectors."

"Overall," said President Sánchez, "we estimate that this Plan will help to increase our GDP by between 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points. This will increase State R&D by 18%. And it will create more than 36,000 direct jobs and some 60,000 indirect jobs, most of them with higher-than-average levels of qualifications and salaries in our country."

A third commitment expressed by the President of the Government of Spain is to "work in a participatory and transparent manner" and, in this sense, he announced that he will ask to appear again in the Lower House of Parliament to present the Plan to the parliamentary groups. Finally, he stressed that "we will not touch a cent of investment in diplomacy or development cooperation", and that the Executive "is already working on another plan to strengthen the multilateral system, which is currently weakening."

Spain will rise to this historic moment

Pedro Sánchez concluded by acknowledging that this priority in security and defence investment is a response to the fact that the world has changed. "Europe must learn to do what until recently was not necessary, what others did for it. Spain must contribute to this effort as what it is and intends to be: one of Europe's major economic, scientific and security powers. Therefore, "Spain is going to rise to this historic moment, and we are going to do so without renouncing our values and our interests."

In short, "we will use the security challenge to keep moving in our own direction, not in the direction dictated by our enemies, but in the direction we as a society want." "A Spain, therefore, with more industry, more employment, more social justice, more territorial cohesion, more technological innovation, and more security in the broad sense of the word. That is our goal."

Non official translation