800-billion-euro war chest to rearm Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — European Union (EU) chief Ursula von der Leyen Tuesday presented a plan to mobilize some 800 billion euros ($843 billion) for Europe’s defense — and help provide “immediate” military support for Ukraine after Washington suspended aid.

The move came hours after US President Donald Trump announced the aid freeze, intensifying Washington’s push for a peace deal with Russia and confirming its pivot away from Kyiv and its European allies.

“Europe faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us has seen in our adult lifetime,” the European Commission president said in a letter to EU leaders.

“We are ready to step up,” she wrote in presenting the plan, to be examined at a Thursday summit on Ukraine and European defense.

Key to the proposals are steps to spur defense investments by the EU’s 27 member states by easing the bloc’s strict budget rules, as well as a new 150-billion-euro loan facility.

‘ReArm Europe’ could mobilize close to 800 billion euros of defense expenditures for a safe and resilient Europe,” von der Leyen told reporters.

It was not immediately clear how fast funds could be mobilized under the proposals — which need member states’ approval — nor how quickly this could translate into battlefield support for Kyiv.

“It can help finance or accelerate certain purchases,” Camille Grand of the European Council on Foreign Relations told Agence France-Presse.

“The results will be visible more likely in weeks or months rather than ‘immediately’ but it makes a difference, since that is when the American restrictions will start to bite.”

Guntram Wolff of the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel said the measures went in the “right direction” but were “not a game changer” — hoping for a more ambitious debate on joint borrowing once Germany’s new government is in place.

But there were positive reactions from multiple European capitals, including in Berlin where Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called them “an important first step” towards the “quantum leap to strengthen our EU defense.”

Italy, Portugal, Estonia and Greece were similarly upbeat.

Thursday’s Brussels summit — after weekend crisis talks also involving Britain — comes as Europe contemplates the stark prospect of the US withdrawing longer-term support from Ukraine and more broadly from its European allies.

Brussels is pressing member states to agree to urgently deliver a new package of key weaponry, but it was unclear if a deal would be reached on Thursday.