EU countries spent their highest-level ever recorded on defence in 2020, the European Defence Agency (EDA) said in a report published on Monday (6 December).

In 2020, the total defence spending in the EU stood at €198bn, a five-percent increase on 2019, making it the most spent on defence in the bloc since the EU agency keeps track of it since 2006.

According to the report, 19 member states increased their overall spending last year, with six countries spending over 10 percent. (Denmark opted out of EU military projects, so its data is not included in the EDA report.)

The EDA, the agency which helps the bloc’s governments to develop their military capabilities, said defence expenditure amounted to 1.5 percent of the 26 EU states’ economic output.

The US has pushed European countries for a two-percent spending goal within Nato, as most EU members are part of the military alliance.

Several EU governments have pushed for more sovereign defence policy and stronger EU military capabilities as Britain, a nuclear power, has left the EU, and the US has been increasingly inward looking or turning towards Asia.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn has not impacted military spending.