EU supports Zelensky after Trump ambush: "We are and will be by your side"

BrusselsDonald Trump is increasingly aligning himself with Vladimir Putin and is cornering Volodymyr Zelensky. But Ukraine is not alone, it still has the unequivocal support of the European Union, or so it is told.they will move the European leaders this Thursday at the summit in Brussels. "We are and will be at your side," stressed the President of the European Council, António Costa. And, at the same time, the Ukrainian president has taken up the gauntlet. "Thank you for the support you have given us since the beginning of the war, and during these years and this last week. [...] We Ukrainians know and feel that we are not alone," thanked Zelensky.

In fact, the main objective of the summit is to stage and make clear that the EU continues to support Ukraine, whatever the position of the White House. In this sense, the heads of state and government will discuss the plan presented by the European Commission last Tuesday to rearm Europe and continue supporting Ukrainian troops. As Ursula von der Leyen insisted on Thursday, some of the measures she has put on the table are "extraordinary" because the continent is in an "extraordinary" moment.

The most notable measure included in Von der Leyen's plan is the relaxation of fiscal rules. In other words, military spending will not be included when calculating the deficit of the Member States, which currently must be a maximum of 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP). Specifically, Brussels calculates that governments will have room to increase the money they spend by 1.5 percentage points more than their respective GDP, which in total amounts to some 600 billion euros. In addition, Brussels proposes that the EU guarantee loans to the Member States for a total value of 150 billion euros to boost investments in defence.

Goodbye to the dogma of austerity

However, diplomatic sources assure that this plan has the majority support of the member states and that, in fact, it is only the basis on which the leaders will negotiate. Therefore, they do not completely rule out further measures to increase military financing and that, for example, new Eurobonds may end up being approved, as requested by countries such as France or Spain. In fact, more and more states are supporting the creation of common debt similar to that agreed by Covid and some of the partners who have always been dogmatic about austerity also see it in a positive light, as is the case of Denmark or Finland.

Even the future German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, announced constitutional reforms yesterday to be able to overcome Germany's strict fiscal limits and be able to increase military spending. In this sense, several international media point out that Germany would still ask for a more significant relaxation of the fiscal rules that Von der Leyen has proposed.

However, there is currently no broad approval for sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukrainian territory as a security guarantee for Putin to respect a potential ceasefire. At this point, although they do not rule it out, several countries, such as Germany and Spain, still see it as premature to talk about it when no type of agreement or ceasefire has yet been reached. Emmanuel Macron, who has been its main promoter, and the United Kingdom are openly in favour of it.