Romania among EU member states with lowest percentage of GDP earmarked for defence in 2016

The 28 EU member states earmarked in 2016 public expenditures worth approximately 200 billion euro for the defence sector, the equivalent of 1.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to data released on Friday by Eurostat, EU's official statistics bureau. 

The amount is smaller than the one spent on social protection (the equivalent of 19.1 percent of the GDP in 2016), healthcare (7.1 percent) or education (4.7 percent), but it is more than what was allocated from public spending to leisure, culture and religion (1 percent) and environment protection (0.7 percent). 

In 2016, the lowest percentage of the GDP allocated for defence was recorded in Ireland (0.3 percent), Luxembourg (0.4 percent), Malta and Austria (both 0.6 percent), the Czech Republic and Hungary (both 0.7 percent), Romania and Slovenia (both 0.9 percent), while the highest percentage was recorded in Estonia (2.4 percent), Greece (2.1 percent), the UK (2 percent) and France (1.8 percent). 

In absolute term, the UK spent the most on defence (47 billion euro in 2016), the equivalent of 24 percent of the total allocated at EU level for defence. 

In terms of defence expenditure France (41 billion euro) ranks second followed by Germany (33 billion euro) and Italy (22 billion euro). Together, all four member states accounted for 71 percent of the total expenditure for defence in the EU.