This was a good article, lots about how this sausages are made in EU defence spending. It doesn’t seem like much ROI as a boost to the economy though, few jobs created.
At best, the European defense spending strategy seems to offer a way to maintain stagnation, rather than achieve growth. But outside of economic concerns, it’s functioned as an ingenious political solution. Rather than dealing with the EU’s economic problems head-on, the Union’s governments have been able to launder a massive economic stimulus plan as a solution to a violent external threat. A courageous facade has been erected to cover clinical – and probably irresponsible – fiscal policy. Appealing to morality, ideology, and fear has been widely successful, and European populations have mostly accepted the messaging.
Because of this, it’s highly unlikely that the EU will tolerate an early conclusion to the war in Ukraine. They stand to lose the justification for their spending, lucrative contracts for their defense sectors, tens of billions on loans that Ukraine will be unable to pay, and the massive investments they’ve made into military-industrial infrastructure. Their dream of a generational extractive project in the form of a debt-ridden, prostrate Ukraine, a place outside the EU but with every trade and economic agreement written solely to benefit it, stands at risk of being destroyed by a steadily advancing Russian army.
It’s not a central bank, so no. They could receive printed money though, and loads of nato spending comes from debt