The initiative aims to fund European weapons production and procurement in order to reduce dependence on the US

The Council of the European Union has formally endorsed a plan to fund military buildup efforts across the bloc through a €150 billion ($170 billion) borrowing mechanism. The initiative comes after Washington announced it would ramp down its involvement in Europe's defense.

The financing arrangement will allow the European Commission to raise funds for military purposes without direct European Parliament approval. It was finalized last week and received formal backing from foreign and European affairs ministers on Tuesday. Hungary reportedly abstained from the vote.

Originally proposed in March, the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative was presented as a way to reduce reliance on US weaponry and a response to what Brussels claims to be a threat from Russia. Moscow has repeatedly denied any aggressive intent, accusing EU leaders of "irresponsibly stoking fears" to justify increased military expenditures.

Several member states have already unveiled plans to expand their military capabilities under the SAFE framework while others have reportedly been considering using the program to provide additional arms assistance to Kiev.

Under the rules of the agreement, at least 65% of a military project's value must originate from EU countries or select partners such as the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine in order to qualify for funding.

Efforts to boost European military production and procurement comes as US President Donald Trump has urged European NATO members to take the matter of defense into their own hands and increase military spending. Trump has threatened to pull American protection from countries that fail to pay up.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt has also recently claimed that Washington is planning to announce a reduction of its US military presence in Europe in the "coming months." The potential scale of such a pullout is unclear.

Meanwhile, Moscow has condemned the EU's new debt initiative as a continuation of the bloc's hostile policies and increasing militarization. Russian officials have said that the EU's military spending hikes amount to an "incitement of war on the European continent" and are evidence that the economic bloc has "has degraded into an openly militarized entity."

(RT.com)