EU defence spending burden must be shared better: French finance minister

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European countries need to do a better job of sharing the burden of financing defence, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said on Monday amid calls for Europe to boost defence spending.

If European Union countries want to be serious about seeking strategic autonomy, they need first to increase their defence spending, Lombard told journalists.

"France is doing part of the job and we would like that this effort should be shared more equally among member states," he said as he arrived for a meeting with euro area counterparts.

With an annual defence budget of about 60 billion euros ($63 billion), France spends 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in line with the NATO guidelines.

Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain all spend less than the 2% target, according to NATO data.

($1 = 0.9549 euros)

(Reporting by Thomas Leigh; Editing by Makini Brice and Sharon Singleton)