A GERMAN MEP has slammed European Nato powers’ commitment to raise military spending to 5 per cent of GDP as a “propaganda tool” designed to justify cuts to social spending.

Die Linke’s Ozlem Demirel spoke out after Greenpeace presented its new report on European military capacity, Europe Home Alone? in Berlin.

The Greenpeace study criticises the “almost manic debate about rearmament in Europe” based on a supposed Russia threat, pointing out that even without the United States, European Nato members plus Canada outmatch Russia in military spending and armed forces strength.

The Nato members minus the US had 1.96 million soldiers to Russia’s 1.26 million and 7,104 main battle tanks to Russia’s 3,630, it found.

They outnumber Russia’s warplanes 2,215 to 1,064 and its major warships 143 to 34.

In spending, Nato states other than the US spent $626 billion on their militaries compared to Russia’s $190bn.

The preponderance over Russia is even greater if the US is included, of course. The United States spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined — between $848-954bn last year, depending on exactly what is included. Nato accounts for 75 per cent of all global military spending.

The Greenpeace report’s authors declined to criticise rearmament, instead calling for it to be co-ordinated on a Europe-wide basis to make it more efficient.

But Ms Demirel said the comparison showed the 5 per cent target made “no sense whatsoever, either fiscally or militarily” and had “absolutely nothing to do with any kind of analysis of the threat posed by Russia,” according to German socialist daily paper Junge Welt.

It was rather designed to add pressure for cuts elsewhere, she argued.