EU leaders shaken by the prospect of US disengagement agreed to boost the bloc's defences at a crisis summit Thursday, as Washington said talks with Kyiv were back on track to secure a ceasefire with Moscow.
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."
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