European Union leaders held an emergency meeting in Brussels yesterday to address escalating security concerns after the suspension of United States military aid to Ukraine.
During the meeting, the EU leaders primarily focused on strengthening their defence commitments and ensuring continued support for Ukraine. EU leaders also committed to working together to bolster the continent’s defences.
Among the attendees in Brussels were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The gathering of European leaders is the first summit of the 27 nations since a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, last week between US President Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration has since announced a freeze on military aid and suspended intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.
Rallying around Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House blow-up with President Donald Trump, European countries greenlit a plan to “re-arm Europe” against the perceived threat from Russia.
“We are moving decisively towards a strong and more sovereign Europe of defence,” Antonio Costa, who heads the Council of the EU’s 27 states, told reporters after the talks.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is.”
Leaders endorsed the European Commission’s aim to mobilise about 800 billion euros ($860 billion) for defence spending, committing to examine “as a matter of urgency” its proposal to provide members with EU-backed loans of up to 150 billion euros.
The defence plan eases fiscal rules to allow states to spend much more – at a time when Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz is embracing radical reforms to fund the country’s rearmament.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has likewise called for a defence spending surge and suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners.
European governments are under pressure to step up defence as Trump questions whether the United States – the guarantor of Europe’s security since World War II – should continue its central role in NATO. The US leader once again called that commitment into question on Thursday, complaining that its allies “should be paying more”.
