For Catalan industry and business, defense has ceased to be a taboo and has become a juicy opportunity. Geopolitical movements, with conflicts burning around the world and with the United States willing to support NATO and European partners less, have put on the table the need for the European Union to spend more on defense and achieve strategic autonomy, something that opens up a range of business opportunities in the military industry. The European Union wants to contribute 800,000 million in the next five years, and the Government plans to allocate 2% of GDP, about 10,000 million, to this sector. Catalonia starts with a certain structural disadvantage in attracting these investments – the Foment employers’ association suggests that 20% of the funds would have to be achieved, a percentage equivalent to the weight of the GDP and the Catalan population in Spain – since it has traditionally not had much weight in the purely military industry, and there are no specifically defense companies located in the territory. However, it has a lot of strength in the automobile industry, in cybersecurity, and in border sectors that can make products for civil and military use.
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