Germany to count motorway repairs as defence spending to meet Nato target

Berlin argues work supports transportation of tanks and other military vehicles

Germany is reportedly considering counting motorway repairs as a defence expenditure in an attempt to hit Nato’s 2 per cent of GDP target.
Berlin argued that bridge repairs should be included in defence spending as its public roads are used to transport tanks and other military vehicles, according to a report in the Süddeutsche newspaper.
Ingo Gädechens, an MP for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union party, told the German daily newspaper: “Now even motorways are supposed to be defence-relevant – despite the fact that the government has no idea of the actual military significance of our motorways.”
Nato’s examples of defence spending allow for a wider definition, which gives countries leeway to report certain health and infrastructure spending as defence expenditure.
After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Nato set a target for defence spending to hit 2 per cent of GDP. The majority of Nato members only hit that level for the first time this year.
In July, Germany declared a figure of €91 billion (£77 billion) to the alliance, a total that pushed its defence budget up to 2.1 per cent of GDP for the first time since the early 1990s.
That figure raised eyebrows because it is close to double the size of the €52 billion assigned to defence in Germany’s domestic budget. Germany also includes the money it gives to Ukraine to buy weapons from its defence industry in its overall figure.
An increasing amount of what Berlin reports to Nato as spending is “classified”, meaning there is little transparency about what is being included.
In 2025, Germany is planning to cut military aid to Ukraine by half so it will have to find new sources of defence spending in order to keep hitting the Nato target.
Given how starkly many Nato members’ defence budgets shot up ahead of a summit in Washington in July, questions have been raised over whether Western capitals are using accounting tricks to reach the target.
In a speech delivered just days after the Russian invasion in February 2022, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, promised to make 2 per cent of GDP the benchmark for Germany military spending in the future.
“We have set this goal not only because we have made a promise to our friends and allies…We are also doing this for us, for our own security,” he said at the time.