Poland is preparing to divert EUR 6 billion from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility toward defence spending, but Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says that his country has no such opportunity because of earlier commitments.

“During the previous parliamentary and government term, Lithuania signed contracts for more than 87% of the allocated RRF funds,” Paluckas told reporters on Wednesday. “There is no legal way to repurpose the funds, because they have already been committed. Some projects are already completed, and the funds have been spent as planned. We simply do not have the same chance to manoeuvre as Poland does when it comes to this funding instrument.

Paluckas explained that remaining RRF funds that are not under contract or linked to projects that have not yet been launched are already being redirected toward national defence or toward the authorised capital of Lithuania’s National Development Bank ILTE.

The European Commission on Tuesday approved Poland’s plan to repurpose EUR 6 billion in RRF funds toward defence.

“Poland will be the first to invest billions from the National Recovery Plan in security and defence,” Jan Szyszko, state secretary at the Ministry for Development Funds and Regional Policy, wrote on X in the wake of the EC decision. “Successful negotiations paved the way, and now other countries are trying to follow in our footsteps.”

Poland and the Baltic States began boosting defence spending after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Lithuania plans to invest an additional EUR 12-13 billion in national defence by 2030, which would bring defence spending to 5-6% of GDP.

Poland’s defence spending is already close to 5% of GDP.

Lithuania, hoping to boost its defence budget even further, is hoping for funding from the EU’s multibillion-euro defence fund.

Source: BNS

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