BERLIN, May 18 (Reuters) – The German government plans to sign off on 10 billion euros ($12 billion) to boost civil defence, in tandem with a wider military spending spree, the interior ministry said on Monday.
The budget to improve domestic preparedness for emergencies including attacks was earmarked last year, but cabinet ministers are scheduled to vote on specific measures on Wednesday. They are meant to complement an ongoing surge in military spending in response to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine since 2022.
Measures include an upgraded medical infrastructure to deal with mass casualties, about 1,000 special vehicles, 110,000 portable cots, as well as spending on shelters and mass alerting networks.
The funds, which have been committed until 2029, will fall under a rule that was passed last year to exempt military spending from Germany’s strict limits on state borrowing.
“We cannot talk about defence capabilities and invest in them without also giving civil defence the support it needs,” Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told Bild newspaper in an interview published on Sunday that the 10 billion euros had been earmarked for civil defence.
Germany is also responding to threats of extremism and so-called hybrid warfare, which might include attacks on the electricity grid and disinformation campaigns.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the German government moved to upgrade its public shelter system. Germany has 579 shelters for around 480,000 people, many of which have not been in use since the Cold War.
($1 = 0.8542 euros)
(Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by Ludwig Burger and Friederike Heine; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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