ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
European Union leaders from 27 member countries met in an emergency session in Brussels today. They unanimously agreed to move forward on plans to dramatically scale up their defense investments. The final document declares that, quote, "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is an existential challenge for the European Union." Teri Schultz has been covering the summit in Brussels. Hi there.
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Three years into the war - is this meeting happening now entirely because of Trump distancing the U.S. from Ukraine, or what's the reason?
SCHULTZ: Well, there already was huge concern here about the situation in Ukraine, but I'd say it has been greatly exacerbated in recent days by the Trump administration's suspension of U.S. assistance to Kyiv and the general expectation the U.S. will stop providing some of the important military assistance that's been Europe's own security backup in NATO. So the EU is already the largest supplier of aid to Ukraine, though you'll often hear President Trump say it's the U.S. And now it's become clear that member countries will need to spend more if the U.S. stops helping Ukraine and if it also needs to worry more about its own territorial defense.
SHAPIRO: OK, tell us more about what the EU heads of state and government agreed to in this joint statement.
SCHULTZ: Well, Ari, it's primarily a to-do list of how the top EU officials would like to see policies develop with regard to raising more money for defense spending. It doesn't, at this point, actually commit them to do any of these things. So the 27 leaders have agreed on the general principle that they will, quote, "accelerate the mobilization of the necessary instruments and financing" in order to bolster the security of the EU and the protection of their citizens. Now, that's a mouthful, so put more simply, here's how Commission President Ursula von der Leyen describes it.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: So it is to the benefit of rearming Europe, rearming the European Union, but also arming Ukraine in its existential fight for its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
SCHULTZ: So the document welcomes new proposals to, for example, allow countries to circumvent EU penalties on going into too much debt, as long as that extra spending is on defense. The idea is if all EU governments increase their defense spending by 1.5% for the next four years, it would add 650 billion euros - that's $700 billion - to the overall EU defense budget.
SHAPIRO: How'd these votes shake out?
SCHULTZ: Well, there was a second statement, and that one was not adopted unanimously. It was about Ukraine only, and it was adopted by 26 of the 27 heads of state and government, because Hungary does not support Ukraine and doesn't want the other EU members to do it either. So Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban often holds up statements or funding to assist Kyiv. So these conclusions are basically repeating EU positions, such as no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine, no negotiations that affect European security without Europe's involvement, any peace agreement must have robust security guarantees for Ukraine, and that any peace must respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Now, those seem basic, Ari, but under current circumstances, for these leaders and surely for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, it must feel reassuring to keep restating them.
SHAPIRO: Teri Schultz in Brussels, thank you very much.
SCHULTZ: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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