Warsaw: Tusk coalition adopts defence budget at three percent of GDP
Donald Tusk's government adopted a 2027 defence budget worth three percent of GDP, the largest in Polish history, with priority on expanding the Vislas system and buying Korean K2 tanks.
- Donald Tusk's government adopted a 2027 defence budget at three percent of GDP.
- Priority is the expansion of the Vislas system and the purchase of Korean K2 tanks.
- Poland becomes the EU member with the largest relative defence outlay.
- Tusk announced coordination with Berlin and Paris ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague in July.
The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk adopted on Wednesday evening a draft 2027 defence budget worth three percent of gross domestic product. The proposal now goes to the Sejm for confirmation, where the coalition holds the required majority. The budget is worth roughly fourteen billion six hundred million euros, the largest in Polish history.
The decision comes six weeks before the NATO summit in The Hague, scheduled for July 16 and 17. The summit is expected to produce a political declaration on a shared target of between two and a half and three percent of GDP for all members. For Serbia, which is not a NATO member but which signed a memorandum in May between the ruling SNS party and the Communist Party of China, the Polish move sets a new spending standard across Central Europe.
Structural priorities of the budget
The main priority of the budget is the expansion of the Vislas air defence system, the Polish version of the American Patriot. The second key item is the delivery of the first large batch of Korean K2 Black Panther tanks, under a 2022 contract covering a thousand units in total.
Beyond those, the budget envisages an increase in funding for the naval component, focused on Orka-class submarines, and for a new generation of radar systems along the eastern border. Spending on cyber defence rises by forty one percent compared with 2026.
Poland is setting a standard that the entire north eastern border of the European Union should adopt over the coming decade, Tusk told the Sejm on Wednesday evening.
Response from European institutions
EU High Representative Kaja Kallas welcomed the Polish government’s decision on Tuesday evening. In a written statement she said that “a consistent effort” is required from all members in the context of the situation in Ukraine, and that she expects Brussels to present a new joint financing instrument in the June package.
Warsaw’s diplomatic agenda ahead of the Hague summit includes:
- bilateral talks between Tusk and Merz in Berlin on June 2
- consultations with Macron in Paris on June 4
- a meeting with the Franco-German Defence Council
- preparation of a joint package with the Baltic states
- consultations with Washington on the Ukraine aid package
Tusk said on Wednesday that he would discuss with Merz and Macron the “operationalisation of the Franco-German initiative for joint European defence”. The initiative, presented in March, envisages joint financing of strategic systems through new European Investment Bank instruments.
Implications for Serbia and the region
Belgrade has issued no official reaction, but sources at the Serbian Ministry of Defence say the structure of the Polish procurement is being followed closely, particularly in air defence and anti-armour systems. In 2025 Serbia spent about two point ten percent of GDP on defence, above the average of EU members outside NATO.
In context, Belgrade is running parallel talks with Washington over access to American platforms and with Beijing on the FK-3 and CH-92A systems. This multi-vector strategy differs from the Polish model, which is tightly bound to NATO standards, but converges with the regional trend of large defence allocations.
What comes after the Sejm
The Sejm is expected to vote on the budget in the second half of June. Once adopted, the first concrete contracts will be signed at the NATO summit in The Hague in July. Tusk announced that Poland, in addition to expanding the Vislas system, plans to take part in the European missile shield programme Sky Shield, coordinated by Berlin.
The main implementation challenge is logistical, since Polish defence industry lacks the capacity to absorb all procurement at once. Tusk’s medium term plan provides for investment in domestic industry and joint European projects with France, Italy and Sweden.
Will Tusk’s three percent of GDP budget become the new standard across the European Union by the Hague summit in July, or will some members hold to lower spending on grounds of fiscal restraint?
