BELFAST — The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached agreement on a 2027 defense and security budget of €3.1 billion ($3.4 billion), the bloc said, a decision shaped by the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
According to an EU statement issued today, next year’s budget is designed “to step up to the challenge of the current geopolitical situation” and includes “major support to Ukraine,” drawing on both Ukraine Support Loan funding and the Ukraine Facility.
Ukraine Support Loan funding is set at €650 million for the year, adding to a previously pledged pool of €90 billion. The Ukraine Facility operates as a separate instrument intended to channel tens of billions of euros to Kyiv in grants and loans.
The announcement follows a request Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made to European leaders a month ago, when he said the country needs “at least €70 billion more from you” beyond the €90 billion already promised in loans, as the war with Russia approaches its fifth year.
The Guardian reported that the EU appears to have responded to Zelenskyy’s appeal, committing €45 billion while leaving the remaining gap potentially to be covered by Canada and the United Kingdom. It was not immediately clear how the newly approved budget relates to that proposed €45 billion, and a spokesperson for the bloc did not respond to a request for comment today.
The 2027 budget is the final one under the EU’s current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), ahead of negotiations on a successor covering longer-term spending plans for 2028 to 2034.
Those talks are already entangled in geopolitical friction. The Financial Times reported that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned he will veto the next multiyear budget if any member state declines to provide financial support for Ukraine. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opted out of the EU’s initial €90 billion loan, and those three countries along with Bulgaria have signaled they will not take part in future lending either.
“A collective commitment that all of us, without exception, will contribute fairly to closing [Ukraine’s financing] gap is an essential prerequisite for resolving this issue and for discussing any further matters, particularly those with financial implications,” Merz reportedly wrote in a letter to European Council President António Costa, according to the business news outlet.
Beyond the outcome of future budget negotiations, the EU’s own budget preparation documents acknowledge that sustaining financial support for Ukraine while responding to other regional and international crises has become steadily more difficult.
“The EU budget has shown versatility, but it also demonstrated the limits of its current architecture, thus requiring a mid-term revision to adequately address additional needs for Ukraine, migration and its root causes, responding to the crises in the Middle East, reinforcing our capacity to respond to natural disasters, and support for boosting investments in critical technologies and defence,” the European Commission noted in its statement of estimates for FY2027.