EU leaders are preparing to strike a deal on a support package for Ukraine worth around €45 billion – expected to happen by the end of this year.
Politico reports, citing five EU diplomats and officials.
This amount is about two thirds of the €70 billion requested by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In recent weeks, providing a loan backed by the current EU budget has become the most likely scenario through which Europe could meet Ukraine’s financing needs in 2027.
At the same time, the EU is trying to secure larger contributions from other allies, including Canada and the United Kingdom, while Belgium continues to oppose using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
However, work on this support package coincides with difficult negotiations over the EU’s next long-term budget. This is likely to heighten tensions between countries that provide the bulk of aid to Ukraine and those whose contributions are comparatively small.
Politico writes that countries which previously opted out of taking part in the EU’s last major loan programme for Ukraine (a €90 billion package agreed in December last year) are signalling that they plan to do the same again this time.
According to two diplomats, the leaders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia said at this month’s European Council meeting that they would not take part in providing the loan. Hungary is also likely to refuse.
Ukraine’s biggest backers in the bloc warn they may be less willing to support the demands of the so-called “Friends of Cohesion” group (Friends of Cohesion), which is pushing for a larger EU budget, if some of these countries do not show solidarity with Kyiv. “How can anyone seriously believe that our taxpayers will agree to channel even one more euro from cohesion funds to those who refuse to take part in defending against the greatest threat to the security of all of us?” a German diplomat said.
However, another EU diplomat said the EU needs to find a way to finance Ukraine while also ensuring cohesion-policy funds are preserved, as many countries in the bloc depend on them.
“Politically, it would be difficult to explain that we found money for Ukraine but at the same time had to resort to sweeping cuts to EU programmes intended for Europeans. It would be better to secure funding for both,” he said.
The question of how exactly to structure a potential new loan for Ukraine will be put up for discussion at the leaders’ meeting on 26 November. The European Commission is expected to present various options in a separate document.
The size of the support package will likely depend on what assistance Ukraine receives from allies in the NATO military bloc, how much funding can be mobilised from existing EU funds, and the scale of military aid (including interceptor missiles) that Kyiv can obtain.
- Ukraine’s Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said Ukraine’s total need for external budget financing for next year exceeds $52bn. The country’s defence capability, pension payments, and the functioning of hospitals and businesses depend on these funds. According to the Prime Minister, almost $20bn of the needs for 2027 have already been identified under agreements with the European Union, the IMF and Japan. At the same time, Ukraine still needs to raise more than $32.6bn, or €30bn.