Zoom.hu reports based on freshly released data by Eurostat, that the overall military expenditure in Europe was 200 billion Euros in 2016, but Hungary is lagging behind on the full list.
According to Eurostat’s report concerning military investments and expenditures, in 2016, altogether 200 billion Euros were spent on military efforts in the EU, which makes up 1.3 percent of the European Union’s GDP. Hungary is on the bottom of the list with its 807 million Euros expenditure (0.7 percent of Hungary’s GDP), followed only by Malta, Austria, Luxembourg and Ireland.
This chart illustrates what percentage each country’s military spending makes up of their whole GDPs
Up to 2010, Hungary’s military expenditures reached 1.2 percent of its whole GDP, but this number has gradually declined until 2015, reaching 0.5 percent.
In 2016 only three EU members were able to get above the required 2 per cent or to even reach it,
these countries being Estonia, Greece and the United Kingdom. The UK spent the most, 47 billion Euros, France spent 40 billion Euros, while Germany spent 33 billion Euros.
This is a comparison between the EU expenditures and Hungary’s spending on military forces.
Zoom.hu argues that the American president, Donald Trump made comments a year ago on how numerous NATO members do not spend the required 2 percent of their GDPs on military efforts. Partly in response for this, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, promised on the occasion of the May 2017 NATO summit that by 2024 Hungary will pull efforts to raise their military expenditures up to 2 percent.
A year later, in May 2018, upon the appointment of Ferenc Korom as the new staff leader, Orbán further promised that the Hungarian government will raise the military expenditures by double.
However, this time he did not state the exact time by this will be done and whether he referred to the numbers in Forint, Euro, or GDP percentage.
featured image: Gergely Botár / kormany.hu
Hungary better step up and get quality equipment and increase the forces.
Mietwagen Deutschland
Hungary must substantially increase its military spending and the size of its military. Much smaller countries, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, etc., are spending a much larger percentage of their GDP on national defense than Hungary. The current armed forces (under 30,000) is completely inadequate to deter aggression or defeat it. Too many males in the armed forces are old and out of shape. The percentage (17.5%) of females in the armed forces is one of the highest in the world. The current size of the military is not even enough to prevent the overrun of the Country before NATO could help. There is a complete lack of modern armor. There are only about 30 old T72’s tanks on active service with another 50 in storage. Romania has over 850. Even Slovakia (half the size of Hungary) has more. The Air Force has only 11 modern fixed wing combat aircraft. Hungary is in a dangerous part of the world. Right next to them, in Ukraine, there is a war going on. Hungary needs to act before its too late.