European Union (EU) leaders at a summit in Brussels supported initiatives to increase defense spending.
This is reported by the Financial Times.
This initiative aims to strengthen Europeʼs defense capabilities and provides for investments in defense, including support for Ukraine.
Among the initiatives approved are loans to EU countries worth €150 billion for defense investment. As the FT notes, EU leaders have called on the European Commission to present detailed proposals — which must then be approved by the governments of the blocʼs member states.
The day before, on March 4, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a new European Union defense plan, which envisages mobilizing €800 billion to strengthen the blocʼs military capabilities.
Von der Leyenʼs plan has five areas. One of them is a new instrument of loans to member states for defense investments of €150 billion. The priority areas for strengthening defense will be air and missile defense systems, artillery, missiles, drones, infrastructure protection, military mobility, cybersecurity, and electronic warfare.
The European Council website states that the European Union will accelerate the mobilization of the necessary instruments and funding to strengthen security in Europe.
The European Council also stressed the importance of further increasing spending on European security and defense and called on the European Commission to propose new sources of financing for defense needs at the level of the entire bloc.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.