Italy rejects aid scheme that buys US weapons for Ukraine’s defense

ROME — Italy has confirmed it will not fund the purchase of U.S. weapons due to be delivered to Ukraine, the latest sign that Rome is seeking to place limits on its defense spending.

Addressing the Italian parliament this week, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Italy had decided against backing the NATO Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) scheme, under which nations agree to fund the purchase of U.S. arms which are then transferred to Ukraine.

“We have said no from the beginning, and it is still a no,” Crosetto said, in reference to PURL.

This month, NATO said contributors have now pledged nearly $6 billion to PURL, with cash to be focused on air defense systems for Ukraine.

NATO has said the scheme has helped fund the purchase from the U.S. of 70% of all missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot batteries and 90% of all ammunition used in other air defense systems.

Contributors include Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden, which said on Thursday it had now put $543 million in the scheme.

Italy’s decision not to participate follows its announcement it will probably not subscribe to the EU’s NEC scheme which allows member states to exempt a quantity of defense spending from calculations of annual deficit spending in order to allow extra arms purchases without breaking EU deficit rules.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has also said Italy may not enter the EU’s SAFE loans program, which would have ensured €14.9 billion in cheap loans for defense spending.

Meloni has warned that her government needs to focus on covering the cost of rising fuel bills. She is focusing a reelection campaign next year at a time when defense spending is falling out of favor with voters.

Crosetto, who is known to be in favor of taking out SAFE loans, told parliament on Wednesday the decision on entering the scheme rested with Italy’s finance ministry.

“The decision to adhere or not adhere to SAFE cannot be taken by the Ministry of Defense,” he said.

Italian government sources told Defense News discussions were still ongoing over using the loans.

On Monday, Crosetto flew to the U.S. to meet US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who posted after the meeting they had agreed on the “urgent need for NATO allies to increase defense spending, expand defense industrial production, and field combat-credible military forces.”

On Thursday, Hegseth was in Brussels, telling a meeting of NATO defense ministers that, “Some of Nato’s largest economies, some of our richest countries, allies that are happiest to go on about the rules-based international order and middle powers banding together, still seem to think the era of free-riding is here.” He did not specify which countries he was referring to.

Even as Meloni speaks of the need to focus on spending at home to reduce the cost of living for voters, Italy has told NATO it will join alliance members in pushing defense spending to 5% of GDP - a total made up of 3.5% in weaponry and 1.5% in spending on domestic security.

Last year, Italy announced it had increased defense spending from around 1.5% to 2% by recategorizing existing spending on Italy’s tax police and coast guard, as well as outlays on space and cyber defense, as defense spending.

On June 11, Meloni said she would announce at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8 that Italy’s defense spending would hit 2.8% of GDP this year.

That rise comes thanks to “growth of 0.71%, guaranteed above all by spending linked to homeland defense,” she told parliament.

Italian government sources told Defense News that the new spending announced by Meloni would cover border security, cyber, space and dual-use technology and would form part of the 1.5% extra envisaged by NATO.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利已确认不会为即将交付给乌克兰的美国武器采购提供资金，这是罗马寻求限制其国防开支的最新迹象。

本周，意大利国防部长圭多·克罗塞托在意大利议会发表讲话时表示，意大利已决定不支持北约优先乌克兰需求清单（PURL）计划。根据该计划，各国同意出资购买美国武器，然后将这些武器转让给乌克兰。

“我们从一开始就拒绝了，现在仍然拒绝，”克罗塞托在谈到 PURL 时说道。

本月，北约表示，捐助方已承诺向乌克兰和平与和平计划 (PURL) 提供近 60 亿美元的资金，这些资金将主要用于乌克兰的防空系统。

北约表示，该计划已帮助乌克兰从美国购买了其“爱国者”导弹系统所需的70%的导弹，以及其他防空系统所需的90%的弹药。

参与者包括德国、加拿大、荷兰和瑞典，其中瑞典周四表示，目前已向该计划投入了 5.43 亿美元。

意大利决定不参与，此前它宣布可能不会加入欧盟的NEC计划。该计划允许成员国将一定数量的国防开支从年度赤字支出计算中豁免，以便在不违反欧盟赤字规则的情况下进行额外的武器采购。

意大利总理乔治娅·梅洛尼也表示，意大利可能不会加入欧盟的SAFE贷款计划，该计划原本可以确保获得149亿欧元的低息贷款用于国防开支。

梅洛尼警告说，她的政府需要集中精力应对不断上涨的燃油费用。她正全力备战明年的连任竞选，而此时国防开支正逐渐失去选民的支持。

众所周知，克罗塞托支持申请 SAFE 贷款。他周三在议会表示，是否加入该计划的决定权在于意大利财政部。

他说：“国防部无权决定是否遵守《安全援助框架协议》（SAFE）。”

意大利政府消息人士告诉《防务新闻》，关于如何使用贷款的讨论仍在进行中。

周一，克罗塞托飞往美国会见了美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯。会后，赫格塞斯发帖称，双方就“北约盟国迫切需要增加国防开支、扩大国防工业生产以及组建具有作战能力的军事力量”达成了一致。

周四，赫格塞斯在布鲁塞尔向北约国防部长会议表示：“北约一些最大的经济体，我们一些最富裕的国家，那些最乐于谈论基于规则的国际秩序和中等强国联合起来的盟友，似乎仍然认为搭便车的时代已经到来。”他没有具体说明他指的是哪些国家。

尽管梅洛尼谈到需要将重点放在国内支出上，以降低选民的生活成本，但意大利已告知北约，它将与联盟成员国一起将国防开支提高到GDP的5%——其中3.5%用于武器装备，1.5%用于国内安全支出。

去年，意大利宣布将国防开支从约 1.5% 增加到 2%，方法是将意大利税务警察和海岸警卫队的现有支出以及太空和网络防御方面的支出重新归类为国防开支。

6月11日，梅洛尼表示，她将在7月7日至8日在安卡拉举行的北约峰会上宣布，意大利今年的国防开支将达到国内生产总值的2.8%。

她告诉议会，这一增长得益于“0.71%的增长，这主要得益于与国土防御相关的支出”。

意大利政府消息人士告诉《防务新闻》，梅洛尼宣布的新支出将涵盖边境安全、网络、太空和两用技术，并将成为北约设想的 1.5% 额外支出的一部分。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。