Away from tariffs, the Brussels veteran has enthusiastically embraced the European Commission’s efforts to mobilize more funds for European defense, in the face of what he called an “existential threat” from Russia.
He supported a Commission proposal to borrow €150 billion to lend to EU governments under a rearmament plan. This would amount to repackaging bonds from different countries in the form of a European “safe asset,” structured in a way to limit overall risk.
“We need to find a combination of national and European solutions,” Rehn said. He applauded as “extremely important” the recent announcement by Germany — one country that does have room for more public debt — that it was lifting its national borrowing restrictions and paving the way for increased defense spending.
And while he stopped short of advocating the outright seizure of the €200 billion in Russian reserves frozen in European depositaries, he urged that the funds be put to “meaningful” use.
So far, they are only being used as collateral for €50 billion in loans from G7 countries to Ukraine.
“I am aware of the legal challenges,” Rehn said, “but this has been discussed in the G7 context and if there is a will, there is a way.”
