Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Leaders from European countries aim to support bold measures to increase defence spending and guarantee support for Ukraine today on March 6, 2025, after Donald Trump suspends military assistance to Kyiv, fuelled crises, the continent can no longer be sure of U.S. security.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will also join leaders of the European Union’s 27 nations at a summit in Brussels.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pressed that he is committed to the NATO security alliance that connects North America and Europe. But he has also expressed Europe must take more responsibility for its security and previously indicated the U.S. would not defend a NATO ally that did not pay enough on defence.
Can Europe strengthen its defence without U.S. support?
According to experts, diplomats expect leaders at the meeting to give the proposals a broad welcome and instruct officials to fast turn them into draft legislation. EU members will then have to arrange on the nitty-gritty, which will not be short.
On Ukraine, nearly all EU leaders are willing to reassure Zelenskiy that he can still count on Europe for support after his heated Oval Office squabble with Trump last week. But European Union members have so far not been competent to agree on a proposal by foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to set a figure on the military support they will pledge to Ukraine this year.
Officials have indicated the EU should promise to at least deliver 20 billion euros this year, as it did in 2024. The project envisions each EU member state contributing according to the size of its economy, amid objections from Nordic and Baltic states and the Netherlands that some bigger nations such as Italy, France and Spain are not doing sufficient.
The heads from European nations are expected to urge EU officials
“to advance work swiftly on initiatives, notably that of the High Representative (Kallas), to coordinate increased EU military support to Ukraine,”
Reuters reported.
In any case, it is unclear whether the Ukraine text will be supported by all 27 leaders, due to a potential veto from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa dated Saturday, Orban stated there were
“strategic differences in our approach to Ukraine that cannot be bridged”.
