Billions of euros of investments in defence spending will be used to modernise the army and help cope with accumulated challenges such as decaying facilities, the government announced on Thursday.

Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen declared at a press conference on Thursday that his country will spend DKK 38 billion (€5 billion) on a “restoration of the foundation of the Armed Forces” plan. He mentioned several challenges the Danish defence forces faced, including old buildings and outdated IT.

According to Poulsen, DKK 27 billion (€3.36 billion) will be spent on “restoring capacities and efforts that the Armed Forces cannot maintain within the current financial situation”, and DKK 11 billion (€1.48 billion) will go to new investments.

In addition to worn-out properties and out-of-date IT, the problems in the Armed Forces also cover inadequate equipment and challenges in recruiting and retaining employees.

Chief of the Defence Force Flemming Lentfer, who also took part in the press conference, emphasised the lack of soldiers.

“The task is huge. It is not something that will be solved in one or two years”, he said.

Poulsen on his part, acknowledged that he, together with his party ( the Liberal Party, affiliated with Renew Europe), has a share of responsibility for the large backlog of expenditure in the Armed Forces over the last decade.

“It is a collective failure that has brought us to the situation we are in now,” he said.

One of the specific examples that have been mentioned to illustrate the state of the Danish defence is the Høvelte casern in North Sealand. According to the Danish authorities, there are such problems with mould and lack of maintenance that three buildings are now completely unusable.

The government’s proposal to add DKK 38 billion to the Danish Armed Forces over the next ten years comes ahead of negotiations on a new defence budget in parliament. These negotiations have been so far postponed because, according to the government, it was necessary to get an overview of the economy first.

(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)

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