EU summit: Leaders demand all hands on deck to fund Ukraine aid package

Detailed summary

Ukraine is facing the huge deficit in its 2027 budget due to the war that has been going on since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. EU leaders will be asked to cove…

Every EU member state should contribute to a new package of financial support for Ukraine required to help fill a €70 billion hole in Kyiv’s budget for the coming year, several leaders insisted during a summit in Dublin on Friday.

The red line drawn by German chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European prime ministers on the need for a collective approach tees-up a clash inside the EU with nationalist governments resistant to sending money to Kyiv.

Ukraine is facing the huge deficit in its 2027 budget due to the war that has been going on since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. EU leaders will be asked to cover €45 billion of the shortfall. The UK, Norway, Canada and a handful of other western allies will stump up the remainder.

“We are open to discuss all solutions to help Ukraine to survive this winter,” Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters in Dublin.

The war in Ukraine hung over the summit of EU leaders in the Convention Centre on the second day of top-level political meetings in the capital as part of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU.

A new EU-backed loan to make up the shortfall in Ukraine’s wartime finances is an option favoured by many governments.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said borrowing as an EU bloc appeared to remain the “most effective” way to raise the tens of billions of euro required. “That doesn’t mean that’s the way it’s going to be forever,” he said.

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Three EU member states – Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic – refused to participate in a previous €90 billion loan the other EU countries agreed to raise for Ukraine last December.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.