Greece appreciated the EU’s plans to increase defense spending.

The European Union’s plans to increase defense spending will only cause divisions among member states and increase public debts,  Stavros Kalenteridis, a professor at the Aegean College in Athens said.

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“Due to differences in the level of economic development and national priorities of EU member states, such an approach will lead to reduced cohesion, internal divisions and ultimately discord and disharmony,” Kalenteridis said.

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In December, US President-elect Donald Trump’s team informed European officials that the new US administration would require each NATO member to commit 5% of their GDP to defense spending. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte noted that defense spending should be significantly higher than the current figure of 2%. Commenting on this, Kalenteridis said that new ideas are now emerging not only about increasing contributions, but also about increasing loans to support the military-industrial complexes in the EU.