According to Crosetto, Italy is playing its face on military spending. But help from the EU is needed

At the next NATO meeting “we will be NATO’s Pierino” because “we will be the only ones not to reach 2 percent”, said the minister. Because reliability is an indispensable condition for exercising a non-subordinate role

Speaking to the House Defense and Senate Foreign and Defense Committees, Guido Crosetto yesterday addressed the thorny issue of military expenses. He recalled that Italy undertook as early as 2014 within NATO to reach the spending quota of 2 percent of GDP, but that subsequent governments have not honored that commitment. Defense spending is now 1.38 percent of GDP and it will be difficult for us to maintain the spending commitments we had made. Crosetto reiterated this position in other international forums as well and asked for these expenses to be separated from the budget constraint to prevent investment in Defense from being detrimental to social spending and other crucial sectors. But what has attracted attention is his statement that at the next meeting of the Atlantic Alliance in Vilnius “we will be the Pierino of NATO” because “we will be the only ones not to reach 2 percent”.