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The United States will pay less for the operational costs of NATO, and some European countries will pay more. The US contribution of more than 2 billion euros has fallen from more than 22.1 percent to 16.35 percent. The new budget will be adopted next week at the NATO summit in London.
Not all NATO countries are happy with the new cost allocation. Diplomats say that France complained that they had come about without proper consultation with other allies. Paris therefore keeps its own contribution at more than 10 percent. The German contribution would go up.
The new cost allocation is intended to accommodate US President Donald Trump. He mainly complains that other NATO countries spend too little on defense. The Americans are also murmuring about the level of the American contribution to the operational costs of the alliance.
The budget of NATO itself is very limited. So NATO itself has no army. The costs are therefore limited to the maintenance of communal barracks, the headquarters in Brussels, personnel costs, and the like.
So far, Americans have paid 22.1 percent of those general costs. Germany paid around 14.8 percent. By increasing the budget now by 33 million, Germany will contribute 16.35 percent. At the same time, the United States is reducing their contribution, bringing them to 16.35 percent.
It is a decision with hardly any budgetary impact for the Germans and the Americans. But one with great symbolic value. US President Donald Trump has long been annoyed by the other NATO member states. By making this concession, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is giving Trump the signal that she is taking his complaints seriously.
