EU leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine at their informal meeting in Prague on Friday 7 October.
“We are determined to mobilise all the necessary tools: financial, military, humanitarian and political support”, said European Council President Charles Michel. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned that Ukraine “needs (our) support not tomorrow, but today, right now”.
According to the French President, Emmanuel Macron, “there is a very clear desire to support Ukraine at this time of war, through our budgetary support, through the preparation of reconstruction, through our military support”.
Strengthening military support
“It is important that Ukrainians are able to defend themselves. In this new and more dangerous phase of the war, it is heavy weapons that they need to succeed in pushing back the Russian army”, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, stressed to the European leaders.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, had announced upon arrival at the meeting that he would propose to EU leaders that further military assistance to Ukraine be provided through the European Peace Facility. Ukraine already benefits from more than €2.5 billion under the Facility.
Mr Borrell hoped that a proposal on this tranche would be on the table of the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday 17 October, as well as the proposal on the Ukrainian army training mission (see EUROPE 13029/19). According to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, there is a consensus among the leaders on the training of Ukrainian soldiers.
Mr Macron also announced that the French and Danes were working on the additional delivery of Caesar artillery trucks. He also announced the creation, at French level, of a special fund initially endowed with €100 million, “which will enable Ukraine, if necessary, to buy directly from our manufacturers the equipment it needs most”.
In his speech to EU leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, via video conference, called for increased cooperation in the fields of security and defence. We must, he said, “increase the supply of arms and ammunition to defend ourselves against Russian pressure, increase the manufacture of arms and ammunition in Europe to be always ready to defend our common space”.
Long-term financing of Ukraine
EU leaders also discussed macroeconomic support for Ukraine. This was the occasion for the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to announce the release, “in the next few days”, of a tranche of €2 billion under the EU’s macrofinancial assistance (see EUROPE 13035/36).
“We will have to look not only at immediate aid - with financial support - but also at the medium term, at reconstruction”, she said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz estimated that in terms of financial support, Ukraine was covered “until about the end of the year”. “We will continue to support the next few years”, he promised.
According to Ms von der Leyen, “What is already clear is that we will have to identify new financing sources because a massive amount will be needed”. A very structured approach will be needed to ensure predictability for the financing, transparency on the how it is going to be done and, of course, sustainability of funding for Ukraine, she explained.
Germany will host a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine on Tuesday 25 October in Berlin, which, according to Mr Scholz, aims to develop aid instruments, not necessarily financial ones.
Nuclear threat taken “very seriously”
Asked about the risk of a Russian nuclear attack and as US President Joe Biden warned of a “nuclear apocalypse”, Mr Michel and Ms von der Leyen said they “take the threat very seriously”. “There have been several implicit or explicit threats, and another threat related to the occupation of the nuclear power plant” in Zaporizhzhia “to turn it into a military base”, the President of the European Council noted.
“It is important to respond clearly to nuclear threats. The answer must be that it is dangerous for the world. And the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable”, added the German Chancellor. The French President was very cautious, having “always refused to play politics”. “We are a [nuclear - ed.] armed power. Doctrine, which is clear in this matter, is that we all need to be very careful”, he stressed. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Damien Genicot and Léa Marchal)