The EU turns to Zelensky and agrees on the major rearmament plan

BrusselsDonald Trump is increasingly aligning himself with Vladimir Putin and cornering Volodymyr Zelensky. But Ukraine is not alone, it still has the unequivocal support of the European Union, or so it is told. They wanted to convey to the European leaders this Thursday at the summit held this Thursday in Brussels. "We are and will be at your side," said the President of the European Council, António Costa. And 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 that we are not alone, and we feel that way," said Zelensky.

In fact, the main objective of the summit is to stage and make clear that the EU continues to support Ukraine, despite the abandonment of the White House. In this sense, the heads of state and government have endorsed the plan presented by the European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen The EU has agreed to a new budget on Tuesday to rearm Europe and continue supporting Ukrainian troops, and has even urged Brussels "to make additional proposals to find new sources of funding for EU defence."

The most notable measure included in Von der Leyen's plan is the relaxation of fiscal rules. That is, military spending will not count when calculating the deficit of member states, which currently must be a maximum of 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP). Specifically, Brussels estimates that governments will have room to increase the money spent by 1.5 percentage points more than their respective GDP, which would mean some 600 billion extra euros. In addition, Brussels proposes that the EU guarantee loans to member states worth 150 billion euros to boost investment in defence. In total, the EU would mobilise some 800 billion euros over four years.

In this sense, diplomatic sources do not rule out the possibility of new Eurobonds 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 deployed for 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 overcome Germany's strict fiscal limits and be able to increase military spending. In this sense, the still German puppeteer, Olaf Scholz, has called for greater flexibility and an extension in time of the fiscal rules proposed by Von der Leyen. This position contrasts with the one it took during the economic crisis of 2008, when it refused to give greater fiscal space to the countries that suffered the most from the crisis, such as Spain, even though the euro was in danger.

However, for the moment there is no unanimous approval of 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 or 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. Whatever the case, it is one of Moscow's main red lines, and the Russian president warned this Thursday that the Kremlin does not intend to accept it.

However, Zelensky knows that he needs the United States on his side and wants to avoid Trump and Putin pulling the wool over his eyes at all costs. In addition to his thanks to the European leaders, he extended his hand in Washington after the US president was booed and assured that they will have a "useful meeting" with US representatives next week. In this regard, the US special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said in a television interview that the US president is planning a meeting next week in Saudi Arabia to discuss the ceasefire of the war. The meeting is expected to be between the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the main adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, Andri Iermak.

On the other hand, the European partners have also ratified their support for Ukraine and have once again demanded a seat for Ukraine in the potential peace negotiations. "There can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine," say the conclusions agreed for the 26 European leaders. In fact, the only leader who has not signed them has been the Hungarian Prime Minister, the far-right pro-Russian Viktor Orbán, who has dampened the European Union's clamour for unity in favour of Kiev. However, Costa has played down the fact that Hungary continues to go against the tide. "A single country does not create division in the EU, it means that this country is isolated," said the President of the European Council.

The French nuclear shield

The US military has been Europe's protective umbrella since the end of World War II, but now Trump is threatening to end it and European allies are being forced to regain military autonomy. Among others, EU countries are already looking for a substitute for the nuclear security provided by the United States and everyone has looked to France, which is the main military power in the European bloc and has atomic weapons.

In turn, Macron, who has always opted to strengthen European military strength and stop depending on the White House, has gotten on his game and on Wednesday showed himself willing to protect the entire community territory with his nuclear weapons, which countries such as Lithuania and Poland have already publicly welcomed. It should be remembered that, beyond France, the only other country in Europe that has this type of weapons is the United Kingdom. However, they are still far from reaching the levels of nuclear warheads that the United States has, which has 898, and the French army has only 56. That is why Scholz has argued for not losing the nuclear protection provided by the Pentagon.