EU ready to move fast on easing spending rules for defence

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is ready to move quickly with proposals to ease budget rules to facilitate increased defence spending by member states, EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.

"It is clear we need to move very fast, as regards to spending by member states and additional flexibility. We expect to work on modalities in the coming weeks, so we are ready to move fast," Dombrovskis said before a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week the commission will propose exempting defence from EU limits on government spending, amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for Europe to finance its own defence.

Von der Leyen said the lifting of restrictions on military spending would follow the same logic as the removal of borrowing limits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not all European governments have supported the idea yet, arguing special treatment for defence already exists in the rules.

But Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency that sets the agenda for the bloc's work, earlier this month argued that the current interpretation of defence investment as only equipment like tanks or planes is too narrow.

Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski on Tuesday said he was convinced defence spending could be increased without undermining the credibility of the EU's fiscal rules.

"Credibility is absolutely key. We do believe we can act within the rules," he said before the meeting in Brussels.

"We need to very precisely describe them, so the countries that want to spend more, can do it without breaking those fiscal rules. Europe needs to spend more, we need to take our security, our defence way more seriously."

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by David Holmes)