The EU summit in Brussels was heavily focused on three pressing issues: the ongoing war in Ukraine, the need for increased defense spending, and strategies to address illegal immigration into Europe.
They pledged to continue to support Ukraine, but they did not immediately endorse a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide at least 5 billion euros for artillery ammunition purchases.
“We need funds for artillery shells and would really appreciate Europe’s support with at least five billion euros ($5.42 billion) as soon as possible,” Zelenskiy told the EU leaders meeting in Brussels via video link.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, had also called on leaders to match words of support for Kyiv with deeds, as US President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his efforts to end the war, including through a rapprochement with Russia.
“The stronger they are on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table,” Kallas said of the Ukrainians.
In a statement, all EU leaders except Hungary’s Viktor Orban pledged to “continue to provide Ukraine with regular and predictable financial support.” They also said EU members should “urgently step up efforts to address Ukraine’s pressing military and defense needs.”
Bolstering the EU’s own defenses also featured on the summit agenda, reflecting deep fears that Moscow may attack an EU member in the coming years and doubts about the future of US protection for Europe via the NATO defense alliance.
“We have to rearm ourselves because otherwise we will be the next victims of Russian aggression,” Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda said.
But some southern European capitals have been more reticent, reflecting a division between those geographically closer to Russia that have given more aid to Ukraine and those farther away that have given less, as a share of their economies.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he did not like the term “rearm,” which the European Commission has used extensively in its push for more defense spending.
“It is important to take into account that the challenges that we face in the southern neighborhood are a bit different to the ones that eastern flank face,” he said, according to Reuters.
EU leaders also discussed the Commission’s defense proposals, which include a call for European countries to pool resources on joint military projects and buy more European arms.
“I think Europe has never moved faster than over the past few weeks,” Macron said.
“Europe was a community built to avoid war, then a single market. It had never built the tools to become a real power. It’s doing it now. We’re doing it in real-time and we’re doing it fast.”
Some, like Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, urged the EU to go further in financing defense spending and consider giving member states grants and not just loans.
The Greek PM asked the EU to consider budgetary flexibility on defense, as well as the creation of a common European fund, amounting to 150 billion euros, to finance investments in defense.
Mitsotakis said on Thursday that illegal migrants denied asylum by Greece should be returned to their country of origin, and he urged the European Union to provide a new list of “safe countries” to help speed up returns.
“We’re looking forward with great eagerness to the new list of safe countries of origin, so that our country can move faster in this direction,” Mitsotakis stressed.
Greece was at the frontline of a migration crisis in 2015-2016, when more than one million people crossed into its territory by sea, looking to move further north in Europe.
Flows have declined since but illegal migration into the EU remains a hot political topic across Europe.
Related: Asylum Applications in EU Fell 13% in 2024, Eurostat Reports
