Rome stalls on its 14.9 billion euros in EU defence loans and Brussels loses patience

Italy has reserved 14.9 billion euros under the EU's SAFE loan programme but has still not signed the loan agreement. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday that Rome would request the full amount, then retracted: the 14.9 billion is only a ceiling, how much is actually drawn will be decided at the end of the year and will probably be less, six to nine billion. Seventeen member states have finalised their loans and the Commission's defence spokesperson Thomas Regnier says there is no time to lose; while Rome delays, the roughly 10 billion euros that could be freed cannot be reallocated to countries such as Poland and Lithuania, which asked for more than they were granted.

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