{"id":1035341,"date":"2026-06-18T20:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1035341\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:56:21","slug":"dutch-pm-calls-out-spains-lack-of-ukraine-funding-amid-speculation-on-peace-talks-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1035341\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch PM calls out Spain\u2019s lack of Ukraine funding, amid speculation on peace talks \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten has called out Spain\u2019s lack of funding for Ukraine ahead of a summit in Brussels on Thursday (18 June), which president Volodymyr Zelensky attended in person, and which saw positive messages on Ukraine\u2019s future EU membership, as well as speculation on peace talks with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly call out countries that are not doing enough. Winning the war also helps Spain\u2019s security,\u201d Jetten told reporters ahead of the meeting with EU leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say this to him [Spanish prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez], I get a rather long and convoluted answer, which is why I keep repeating the message to him,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez said: \u201cNaturally, we support Ukraine as one of the principal providers of public funding for this support to Ukraine, from military and defence terms, but also in humanitarian aid and support for the Ukrainian state\u201d.<\/p>\n

When looking at bilateral funding, the Netherlands is one of the main donor countries in support of Ukraine, with total contributions amounting to nearly \u20ac10.7bn, according to figures<\/a> from the Kiel Institute. In contrast, Spain has allocated about \u20ac2.2bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Spain argues that it is already paying its fair share through the EU\u2019s budget, the \u20ac50bn Ukraine facility<\/a> and the European Peace Facility. <\/p>\n

To this, Jetten said that \u201cyes, we have the Ukraine facility\u201d but \u201call member states will also need to do more individually to help Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Spanish prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez at the EU Council in Brussels <\/p>\n

Optimism vs realism<\/strong><\/p>\n

For his part, arriving at the Council building flanked by European Council and EU commission presidents Ant\u00f3nio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, Zelensky celebrated \u201ca really great moment for Ukraine\u201d, which saw negotiations of future EU membership finally unblocked earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The whole process, which was also linked to Moldova\u2019s accession path, was blocked for over two years due to opposition by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a historic week for Ukraine,\u201d Costa also said, pointing to positive discussions during the G7 summit in France and a broad agreement among the world\u2019s superpowers to increase pressure on Russia\u2019s war economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine is the one fighting for peace in Europe, they have definitely earned their place in the EU and Nato,\u201d Latvia\u2019s prime minister Andris Kulbergs also said ahead of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be by your side for as long as it takes,\u201d said von der Leyen, echoing the expectation of a smooth accession: \u201cWe hope that during the summer we can open more clusters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to see them becoming members of the EU as soon as possible,\u201d\u00a0Lithuanian PM Gitanas Naus\u0117da told reporters ahead of the summit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Arriving at the Council building flanked by European Council and EU commission presidents Ant\u00f3nio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, Zelensky celebrated \u201ca really great moment for Ukraine\u201d which saw negotiations of future EU membership finally unblocked earlier this week (Source: Zelensky\u2019s social media) <\/p>\n

The Baltics and the commission have voiced optimism to open all chapters during the summer, but some have recalled the historically lengthy process of enlargement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know this process will take a long time, but the first steps have to be taken,\u201d said German chancellor Friedrich Merz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the Baltics, it took five to seven years since they opened negotiations until they finally became official members of the EU in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An EU senior diplomat also said during briefings ahead of the summit that \u201csome realism is needed\u201d when it comes to enlargement of Ukriane because it \u201cwill take years, not months\u201d.<\/p>\n

Peace talks\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the positive messages on Ukraine\u2019s EU future were overshadowed by reports<\/a> about contacts between a member of European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa\u2019s cabinet and the Kremlin, breaking years of isolation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten has called out Spain\u2019s lack of funding for Ukraine ahead of a summit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1035342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[217083,2000,299,218484,239342,239345,275535,275533,239340,239343,218482,104,275534,239341,239344,218483],"class_list":["post-1035341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-identifier24","tag-identifier4390","tag-identifier4545","tag-identifier4687","tag-nameenlargement","tag-nameeu-summit","tag-nameeuco","tag-nameukraine","tag-spain","tag-termcodeenlargement","tag-termcodeeu-summit","tag-termcodeeuco","tag-termcodeukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116773112287212160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}