While the government is demanding an additional 36 billion euros for updating the military programming law, the Senate is proposing another 14 billion euros more. This would increase military spending to 450 billion euros by 2030.
Both parliamentary chambers have made military programming a central issue in recent days. The Senate proposed on Wednesday to increase the budgetary effort in favor of the armies by voting in committee for an envelope of 14 billion additional euros, in addition to the 36 billion requested by the government in the update of the military programming law (LPM). In a context marked by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, senators want to go further than the executive.
“What we are being offered today is a programming that only allows us to secure the previous programming law”, regretted during a press conference the President of the Republicans of the Defense Commission, Cédric Perrin, who wishes to “give much more ambition” to the LPM and the put “in line with the threats for which the executive is preparing us”.
In the morning, the committee adopted the bill updating the country’s main orientations in terms of defense and resources for the armies, which must, in its government version, bring to 436 billion euros the military spending planned by the end of the decade. The Senate is calling for a greater effort – 450 billion euros – and intends to ensure that the army budget represents at least 2.7% of GDP in 2030, compared to 2.5% in the government project adopted in recent days in the National Assembly.
A vote on the entire text on June 9
The senators therefore propose to maintain each year until 2030 the amount committed in 2026 for defense, namely 6.7 billion euros. The debate will take place again in the hemicycle from Tuesday, in the presence of Minister Catherine Vautrin who will be able to give her opinion on the senators’ proposals. A solemn vote on the entire text is planned for June 9.
“We are trying to smooth out this progression over time to ensure that the effort is shared between the period 2026-2030 and the period 2030-2035,” affirmed Cédric Perrin, thus hoping not to place a considerable burden on future governments after the presidential election of 2027.
This text, which also contains other measures such as the creation of a new exceptional regime in the event of a “serious and present” threat, however only presents an indicative trajectory, because real investments for the armies must be voted on each year in the finance bill.
To go further -> Military programming law: a new exceptional regime, “the state of national security alert”, approved by deputies
