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 on your side," stressed the President of the European Council, António Costa. And, at the same time, the Ukrainian president took 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 of the European club 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 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 they spend by 1.5 percentage points more than their respective GDP, which in total amounts to around 600 billion euros. In addition, Brussels is proposing that the EU guarantee loans to member states for a total value of 150 billion euros to boost investment in defence.

However, diplomatic sources assure that this plan has the majority support of member states and that, in fact, it is only the basis on which the leaders will negotiate. They do not therefore completely rule out further measures to increase military funding and, for example, the approval of new Eurobonds, as requested by countries such as France and 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, such as Denmark and Finland.

Even the future German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, announced constitutional reforms yesterday to be able to overcome Germany's strict fiscal limits and 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.

On the other hand, for the moment there is no broad approval of the sending of European peacekeeping troops to Ukrainian territory as a security guarantee so that Putin respects a potential ceasefire. At this point, although they do not rule it out, several countries, such as Germany and Spain, still consider it premature to talk about it when no agreement or ceasefire has yet been reached. Emmanuel Macron, who has been its main driving force, and the United Kingdom are openly in favour of it.