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Poland is discussing ways of clubbing together with the UK and other European nations to drive up defence production while obtaining better value for taxpayers, its finance minister has said, as the continent responds to US pressure to bolster its military power.
Andrzej Domański said it was “crystal clear” that European countries had to take more responsibility for their own security by spending “more and more wisely”, adding that he had discussed “new tools” for defence spending with UK chancellor Rachel Reeves at a meeting in London on Wednesday.
He said Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, had invited Reeves for further discussions at a meeting of European finance ministers in Warsaw next month, alongside Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian finance minister and former Nato secretary-general.
“I have a very strong feeling that the Polish and UK thinking about defence is very similar,” Domański told the Financial Times, adding that defence funding is his “top priority” when meeting fellow EU finance ministers as well as his UK counterpart.
Poland, which is Nato’s top defence spender as a share of GDP, has been pushing its European partners to bolster their defences as they respond to Russian aggression in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s demands for Europe to assume far greater military commitments in the region.
Domański and Reeves convened a discussion on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Cape Town last month to examine ways of co-ordinating funding for defence investments.
Ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, the European Commission published its proposals for rearmament on Wednesday, including a €150bn fund. The EU scheme will only be open to British-produced weapons if the UK signs a defence and security pact with the bloc.
But Domański’s meeting with Reeves took place against the background of several EU member states looking for ways to involve the UK in the bloc’s defence build-up.
“As a country who is really interested in building this European capacity, we are also interested in working with non-EU members,” said the Polish finance minister, adding that it was “premature” to set out proposals.
Domański added that the joint goal was to lower the cost of funding for defence while spending taxpayer money “more efficiently” and providing support for Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises.
He said he would discuss Poland’s proposals at the informal Ecofin meeting in Warsaw next month. EU-wide solutions were critical, but “if there are goals that cannot be achieved on an EU level, then we will try to find other solutions”.
Domański endorsed a “buy European” approach, using defence spending as an industrial policy to promote domestic production. “Building a strong European defence industry is a priority . . . It’s always best to buy Polish, and if that’s not possible, then European.”
On the UK’s role, he added: “We were discussing with the chancellor different options, and we share the view that our taxpayers’ money must be spent efficiently and that there is room for improving this efficiency thanks to new tools for spending money more wisely.”
Officials are hoping European governments will get better value on defence contracts by clubbing together on equipment purchases, as they also examine common mechanisms to marshal private sector funding.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We welcome efforts to enhance the EU’s defence production. European allies need to step up across the board and we need a new approach that brings European efforts together and galvanises further action.”
The discussion in London came as the UK prepared to convene senior military planners from about 30 countries involved in a “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine.
The meeting on Thursday will examine operational elements of the proposed Anglo-French-led “reassurance force” of European personnel that could be deployed inside Ukraine following a ceasefire. Participants will include UK defence secretary John Healey.
The gathering, at the British Armed Forces headquarters in Northwood, Hertfordshire, is partly designed to continue building trust and a clear vision among allies but will also look in further detail at the potential capabilities across the coalition.
This was expected to include a discussion about whether countries willing to put forces into Ukraine could redeploy units already committed to Nato in Europe, according to people familiar with the agenda. Other nations in the coalition with less appetite to put boots on the ground in Ukraine could then backfill the existing alliance deployments.
The UK decried Moscow’s resistance to an immediate ceasefire without conditions as “disappointing”, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call with Trump on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “We obviously welcome President Trump’s efforts to secure a ceasefire . . . but it is also disappointing that Putin has not agreed to a full-on, immediate ceasefire without conditions, as Ukraine has done.”
Additional reporting by Paola Tamma in Brussels
