Although the Europeans are struggling to agree on the opening of negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, the €50 billion Facility and the Ukraine component of the €20 billion European Peace Facility (EPF), European leaders are expected to reiterate the “EU’s unwavering” support for Ukraine at their summit.
According to draft conclusions dated Tuesday 12 December, the leaders should once again condemn Russia’s war of aggression and confirm “the European Union’s unwavering commitment to continue to provide strong political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes”.
The Council should focus above all on responding to Ukraine’s urgent military and defence needs. “In particular, the European Council insists on the importance of timely, predictable and sustainable military support for Ukraine, notably through the European Peace Facility and the EU Military Assistance Mission, as well as through direct bilateral assistance by Member States”, the draft states.
The European Council should invite the Council to intensify work on reforming the EPF and further increasing its funding, “building on the proposal of the High Representative”. Josep Borrell has proposed €20 billion over 4 years for Ukraine. While a previous version of the text referred to an increase of €5 billion, this new version makes no mention of it.
As they had requested, the High Representative should inform the leaders of the security commitments that the EU could provide to Ukraine. The European Council should invite Mr Borrell and the Council to take the work forward, while remaining seized of the issue.
The leaders are also expected to pledge to step up the provision of additional humanitarian assistance and civil protection to Ukraine, as well as assistance to ensure the resilience of its energy sector over the winter.
In addition, the European Union remains committed to supporting Ukraine’s efforts to repair, recover and rebuild. In this context, the European Council should reiterate its call for decisive progress on how extraordinary revenues held by private entities and coming directly from Russia’s frozen assets could be allocated to support Ukraine, its recovery and reconstruction.
The EU should also reiterate its determination to “further weaken Russia’s ability to wage its war of aggression, including by further strengthening its sanctions, and through their full and effective implementation and the prevention of their circumvention, especially for high-risk goods, in close cooperation with partners and allies”. The 12th sanctions package should be adopted in the next few hours.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/a4b (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editorial staff)