EU Edges Closer to €150 Billion Defence Package Despite Hungary’s Ukraine Holdout

EU leaders endorsed a landmark €150 billion defence spending plan at their highly-anticipated emergency summit on Thursday, while Hungary’s Viktor Orbán refused to back a statement of support for Ukraine.

All 27 EU countries agreed to consider “as a matter of urgency” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plan to issue €150 billion in fresh loans to boost defence spending, paving the way for the Commission to put a concrete proposal on the table by the next summit in two weeks’ time.

However, a statement of support for Ukraine was supported by only 26 countries, with Orbán – an ally of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – remaining in obdurate opposition, as most leaders had anticipated.

It is not the first time in recent history that EU leaders have adopted a separate statement without Hungarian backing. But their doing so on Thursday shows clear intent that a ‘coalition of the willing’ will find avenues to send more financial and military aid to Ukraine as the United States withdraws.

Hungary could not agree to the statement that all other EU leaders “firmly supported”, which affirmed that “there can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine” and that any peace deal must “respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Slovakia, led by the pro-Russian Robert Fico, was persuaded to support the Ukraine text by the last-minute inclusion of wording on exploring “workable solutions” to its ongoing gas supply dispute with Kyiv – though the concession was significantly watered down in the summit’s final hours.

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“Money where our mouth is”Von der Leyen, who took leaders through the contours of her ReArm Europe plan first announced on Tuesday, confirmed she would table a legal text that elaborates on her menu of five defence funding options in time for the next summit.

Those five options, which attracted varying support on Thursday, include: the €150 billion in loans, activating a national ‘escape clause’ in the bloc’s fiscal rules, incentivising the use of cohesion funding for defence spending, a bigger role for the European Investment Bank, and mobilising private capital through completing the Savings and Investment Union.

Not on the table, yet, is joint borrowing – or the issuance of so-called Eurobonds – despite French President Emmanuel Macron saying after the summit he was “ready to look” at the idea.

Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed that Germany would like the spending plans to go even further, by creating a long-term exemption of defence investment from EU fiscal rules.

European Council President António Costa, who convened the emergency summit, called for “flexibility” in the application of the fiscal rules, but stopped short of backing the German proposal for a full revamp.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” Costa said.

Hungary’s “isolation” is not “division”On Ukraine, meanwhile, the 26 European leaders agreed to examine proposals by the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas for a significanly increased aid package to be sent to Ukraine this year – which had fallen off the draft text only days prior.

Macron said that the EU is “entering a phase of discussions” that means he will soon be “ready to talk to President Putin... once we’ve agreed with both President Zelenskyy and our partners that the time is right.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – who secured a minor victory with the late inclusion of language that “welcomes all efforts” towards a “comprehensive, just and lasting” peace, including those of Trump – ruled out deploying Italian troops to Ukraine in a peacekeeping force.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined the leaders for a working lunch, lauded a “very productive day” in Brussels and confirmed he would travel to Saudi Arabia next week, where his team would attend talks with the United States.

“We are not alone - and we feel it,” he had told reporters on his arrival earlier on Thursday.

Despite Hungary’s opposition, there was general insistence that the EU’s message of support for Kyiv was not weakened.

Hungary had “isolated itself”, said Costa – which does not mean “division”.

“Anytime you bring 27 countries around the table, everybody has their own nuance,” Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s European minister, told reporters.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged her fellow leaders to “conclude that it is really good that there are 26 countries in the EU that – with everything that is happening around us and with the challenges in Ukraine – stand firm in our support.”

“We can be proud of the old continent today,” she added.

See the original of this article here.