Italian Elections Loom as Italy Refuses to Fund Arms for Ukraine

Rome, June 22 (CNA) Italy has confirmed it will not participate in a NATO-related program to fund the purchase of U.S. weapons for Ukraine. This is the latest example of Rome's efforts to limit defense spending.

Defense News reported that Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated in parliamentary questioning last week that Italy has decided not to support NATO's "Priority Ukraine Needs List" (PURL) program, which involves purchasing U.S. weapons on behalf of Ukraine. Under PURL, NATO members would jointly fund the purchase of U.S. weapons to be transferred to Ukraine.

Speaking about the PURL program, Crosetto emphasized, "We said no from the beginning, and our stance remains refusal."

NATO stated this month that participating countries have currently committed nearly $6 billion in funding for the PURL program, which will be focused on supporting Ukraine's air defense systems.

NATO indicated that PURL has already helped fund 70% of the missiles for Ukraine's required Patriot air defense systems and up to 90% of the ammunition for other air defense systems.

Current contributing countries include Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Prior to announcing its boycott of the PURL program, Italy also announced that it would likely not join the EU's "National Exception Clause" (NEC) program. NEC allows member states to exclude certain defense expenditures from their annual fiscal deficit calculations, enabling countries to make additional arms purchases without violating EU deficit regulations.

Furthermore, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that Italy might not join the EU's European Defense Financing program called SAFE; this program could have provided Italy with a low-interest loan of 14.9 billion euros for defense spending.

Meloni warned that with soaring domestic energy and fuel prices, the government must focus its policies on subsidizing livelihoods. She is fully preparing for next year's re-election campaign, and expanding defense spending at this time is clearly no longer favored by Italian voters. (Compiled by Chen Yi-wei) 1150622

Stand with truth, your every sponsorship is a force to protect press freedom

Download CNA's "One-Stop News" APP for real-time updates

The text, images, and videos on this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast, publicly transmitted, or used without authorization.