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France Says Joint Bonds on Table to Finance European Defense
France’s minister for European affairs said joint European bonds should be discussed in the coming days to ramp up defense funding for the bloc as it tackles an “existential moment” over Ukraine and the continent’s wider security.
(Bloomberg) -- France’s minister for European affairs said joint European bonds should be discussed in the coming days to ramp up defense funding for the bloc as it tackles an “existential moment” over Ukraine and the continent’s wider security.
Benjamin Haddad spoke to Bloomberg TV ahead of a meeting of European leaders convened by President Emmanuel Macron in Paris for urgent talks on Ukraine.
“What happens in Ukraine is of existential importance to the future of Europe, to the future of European security,” said Haddad. “This is a moment also to think about how we can fund stepping up on our security.”
The informal talks in the French capital come as European officials are worried US President Donald Trump is racing ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine and that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could be pushed into a disastrous deal unless they can quickly come up with a plan to give him military back up.
“In the face of this emergency, I think it is time to take historic decisions. And indeed the question of eurobonds, for instance, is one of the mechanisms that we should be talking about,” Haddad said.
Bloomberg reported earlier that European officials are working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and support Kyiv amid Trump’s push for a quick end to the war in Ukraine.
Macron has long pushed for more investments into European defense and is likely to revive demands for joint defense bonds to fund fresh aid for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, European bonds slipped Monday on speculation a meeting in Paris between the bloc’s leaders will point toward higher spending plans to bolster the continent’s security.
Asked about Europe buying American defense equipment in order to convince Trump that the bloc is ready to step up, the minister said such a move would dilute the continent’s efforts toward ramping up defense capacity and slow down decision making on the use of weapons.
“When you deliver long range missiles to Ukraine, if you have even a small part of components that have been built by the United States, there’s still control of use by the US,” Haddad said. “This has been at the heart of the debates that we’ve had over the possibility for Europeans, for Ukrainians to, to use deep strikes, against Russian targets, even though Europeans were in favor of this.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the head of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, its foreign envoy Antonio Costa, NATO’s Mark Rutte, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Poland’s Donald Tusk, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, the Netherlands’ Dick Schoof and the UK’s Keir Starmer are expected to be in Paris later today to come up with a plan to support Ukraine in case of a US withdrawal.
Among the key questions for the leaders will be how the EU will finance any supplemental package for Ukraine.
The EU is the biggest provider of aid to Ukraine but Kyiv relies on the US for crucial military resources such as F-16s and ATACM long-range missiles. The bloc has allocated more than €120 billion to the war since the start of the conflict, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
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Business NewsEconomyFrance Says Joint Bonds on Table to Finance European Defense
First Published:17 Feb 2025, 04:19 PM IST
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