Europe is burning yet there’s 12x more money for militarisation than civil protection

OPINION – climate crisis, militarism, EU, arms spending


This graphic from Stop ReArm Europe deserves wide circulation in the climate, labour and anti war movements.

The militarist tunnel vision evident in the EU budget is also a risk in UK spending priorities – where the evident and immediate threat of climate breakdown is downgraded and played down, while the “whole society approach” that we need to combat it is instead cranked up to prepare for war; and resources sucked from one into the other.

We need clarity in all three movements – in responding to the acute crisis of fossil fuel prices caused by the war on Iran and the chronic impacts of heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods driven by the climate crisis, we should be campaigning on all of these three principles.

  1. To stop the crisis we need to stop the war, tax war profits and transfer military spending
  2. The transition to renewable energy and energy conservation is the solution.
  3. Crisis measures must be social justice measures.

A draft motion for union and Party branches can be accessed here.

Please put it and lets shift this debate.

Please note: the figures in these graphics refer to the budget of the EU as an institution. The budgets of individual member states are far higher.

Source: Greener Jobs Alliance

14 Aug 2026 by Paul Atkin