In her State of the Union address on Wednesday 10 September, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced new measures to strengthen European support for Ukraine.
The President is proposing to set up a reparations loan using frozen Russian assets. “This is Russia’s war. And it is Russia that should pay. This is why we need to work urgently on a new solution to finance Ukraine’s war effort on the basis of the immobilised Russian assets”, she explained. The assets themselves will not be affected and the risk of this loan will have to be borne collectively.
“Ukraine will only pay back the loan once Russia pays for the reparations”, said Ms von der Leyen.
The European Commission also intends to create a new programme called ‘Qualitative Military Edge’, which will support investment in the capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces. No details have been given as to how it will work.
Lastly, Ms von der Leyen announced that the EU would be frontloading the €6 billion ERA loan and would be concluding a ‘Drone Alliance’ with Ukraine. In her view, the Member States can use their “industrial power” to help Ukraine counter the “drone war”. “We can help transform Ukrainian ingenuity into battlefield advantage – and into joint industrialisation”, explained the President of the Commission. The previous day, Germany had announced the launch of a programme to provide Kyiv with “several thousand long-range drones” for “deep strikes”, to be produced by the Ukrainian defence industry at a total cost of €300 million.
In the debate that followed the speech, the chair of the Renew Europe group, Valerie Hayer (French), called for more to be done. “Russia’s war against Ukraine is a moment of truth for Europe. (...) We must do more: give Ukraine all the tools it needs to strengthen its army and finally make this Europe of Defence a reality. (...) Let's protect Ukrainian airspace. Let’s show our muscles, because it is through our strength that we will dissuade our enemies from attacking us”, she pleaded.
Strengthening sanctions. Taking the view that the EU should “put more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table” with more sanctions, Ms von der Leyen pointed out that the Europeans were working on the 19th package of measures in coordination with their partners, particularly the Americans.
On the same day, the Commission and the European External Action Service were due to present their proposals to the Member States. “In particular, we are looking at ways of phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster, the ‘shadow fleet’ and third countries”, explained Ms von der Leyen.
The President of the Commission also announced that she would be hosting a summit of the ‘International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children’. Tens of thousands of children are thought to be affected.
See Ms von der Leyen's speech: https://aeur.eu/f/icl (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)