that's the warning from the blocks foreign policy chief, joseph harold, who also says that a significant gap already exists. we could have been union and a member to state would need to do much more together. and we need to to do much more together. right now. we cannot wait because the choice for as a symbol, either way, invest a lot on defense innovation or we will become defense irrelevant. according to the european defense agency, the body that's responsible for military cooperation and development within the block. the e. u spent a record 198000000000 euros on defense last year. even despite pandemic, hardship. however, only one percent of that was allocated to the research and development of new technologies. when the goal was to spend double that amount, what's more? that number is 7 times less than america spent. the latest data suggests that in 2020, the european union member states spent roughly 2500000000 euros on research and technology. and one percent. 1.2 percent of the total defense expenditure. it's important to look that on innovation that the e u spent slightly more th