{"id":638020,"date":"2025-12-17T11:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638020\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:34:15","slug":"eu-must-fund-ukraine-to-protect-itself-says-von-der-leyen-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638020\/","title":{"rendered":"EU must fund Ukraine to protect itself, says von der Leyen \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stressing the need for stronger European defense capabilities, she added, \u201cEurope must be responsible for its own security. This is no longer an option. This is a must. We need to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no more important act of European defense than supporting Ukraine\u2019s defense. The next days will be a crucial step for securing this,\u201d von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our task at this week\u2019s summit is to show that we are focused on our own strategy and our own interests and our own priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s summit is crucial for Europe and for Ukraine, and the most pressing, unresolved issue is that of whether to grant Ukraine access to frozen Russian assets to bankroll its war efforts. Belgium, where the majority of those assets are held, is holding out against using them<\/a>, fearing it would be on the hook to repay the full amount if Russia attempted to claw back the money.<\/p>\n

In her speech to MEPs, von der Leyen said the majority of the cash that Ukraine needs to continue funding its war effort must come from Europe: \u201cThe IMF and our estimates show that Ukraine\u2019s needs for the years 2026 and 2027 are around \u20ac137 billion. Europe should cover two-thirds, that is \u20ac90 billion.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Commission chief also talked about the EU\u2019s need to boost competitiveness while driving diversification and strengthening supply chains, saying that \u201cEurope\u2019s era of independence must be unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stressing the need for stronger European defense capabilities, she added, \u201cEurope must be responsible for its own security.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,85516,299,657,49,1220,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-638020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-eu-summit","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-ukraine","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","14":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115734699321467246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638020","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=638020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}