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According to the Financial Times, European NATO members face a shortfall of €56 billion in defense spending targets. The study highlights that countries such as Italy, Spain, and Belgium are unable to meet NATO's defense spending target of 2% of GDP, despite having high levels of public debt and budget deficits. Germany recorded the largest deficit, spending €14 billion less on NATO defense in 2023 than required to meet the target. However, Berlin has made significant progress in reducing this gap over the past decade, adjusting for inflation, and aims to eliminate it entirely this year. Following Germany, Spain (€11 billion), Italy (€10.8 billion), and Belgium (€4.6 billion) have the largest deficits in terms of size.