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esp49129 wrote:

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The budget target of 2% of GDP apparently includes pensions and the Gendarmerie paramilitary/police force. According to media sources, the real defense budget, once you exclude those items and use NATO criteria is:

France (2008): 1.64%
France (2020): 1.22%

For comparison:
UK: 2.2%
Spain: 1%
Germany: 1%
Italy: 0.82%

The NATO criteria include pensions*, so you can't quote a figure which excludes those and uses NATO criteria. The NATO lists show Italy as having considerably greater military spending than in the Italian budget (you've given the budget figure), partly because of the inclusion of pensions, & the Carabinieri (which should mostly be excluded), but also because some equipment purchases & running costs are funded by other budgets, e.g. industrial aid to shipyards, disaster relief funds to help buy & run one of the LPDs - etc. I believe the UK figure you quote is full, NATO definition spending, I think. The German & Spanish budget figures quoted above also do not include everything in the NATO definition. In other words, the figures you quote are not on the same basis, & therefore not comparable.

NATO defence expenditures up to 2007
These are the figures reported to NATO, i.e. including the elements excluded from national budgets, & for the most part excluding those elements (e.g. paramilitary police) not part of the NATO definition. The chief exceptions are Italy & France, which have not yet separated the general Carabinieri & Gendarmes from the units which NATO considers defence forces (both forces have such units), so their expenditure is inflated to some degree. However, the French have stated that the Gendarmerie budget will be transferred from the Defence to the Interior ministry budget, so will not form part of the 2% target. That accounts for much of the cut from 2.4% in 2007 to the 2% target.

Note the difference between the Italian 2008 budget (0.82%) & the actual expenditure in 2007 (1.8%), including the Carabinieri, etc. The Carabinieri don't really cost more than the army, navy & air force. Most of the difference is made up of real military spending not included in the budget, such as the items I mentioned above. The 1.8% is too high, but is closer to the NATO definition than the 0.82%.

Note the comment in the first paragraph - "In view of the differences between this and national definitions, the figures shown may diverge considerably from those which are quoted by national authorities or given in national budgets".

Past NATO defence expenditures

*The figures represent payments actually made or to be made during the course of the fiscal year. For countries providing military assistance, this is included in the expenditures figures. For countries receiving assistance, figures do not include the value of items received. Expenditures for research and development are included in equipment expenditures and pensions paid to retirees in personnel expenditures.