The EU Foreign Affairs Council met in Copenhagen last night, with Ukraine and European defence at the top of the agenda. Most of the EU countries acknowledge that Ukraine will keep defending itself against Russia’s invasion and will not capitulate to the demands being made by US President Donald Trump. The EU will keep supporting Ukraine with aid and further sanctions against Russia.
Profits from Russia’s frozen assets will keep being used to finance Ukrainian government expenditure and the EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said in a press conference that Russia will not receive its funds unless it compensates Ukraine for the war.
Only a minority of EU member-states believe that Ukraine will capitulate to Russia during President Trump’s brokered “peace talks”. Hungary is refusing to condemn the Russia over its attack against the British Council which damaged the EU Delegation offices. European nations will continue to coordinate their support for Ukraine but pressure is also needed on the White House to support new EU sanctions on Russia which will address Russia’s shadow fleet.
Hungary is also blocking decisions over Ukraine but the EU is set to increasingly use its Qualified-Majority-Voting method to avoid having Hungary block decisions over Ukraine. Some member-states are concerned about the the QMV on point of principle.
On Gaza, European Foreign Ministers are mostly in agreement that the EU has failed to do enough to address Israel’s war crimes including by sanctions. Some Foreign Ministers have stated that their respective populations expected them to do more about Gaza. There was agreement that the recognition of the State of Palestine will ensure that Israel does not kill the Two-State solution, but there were also concerns that Hamas could be replaced by other militant groups. Agreement was also reached that Europe was to do more to pressure Israel on its illegal settlements in the West Bank, but Hungary refused to be part of this discussion.
Meanwhile, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held a press conference with Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal at the Amari Air Base. Estonia will be allocating more than 5% of its GDP to defence expenditure thanks to the EU’s Re-Arm safe-loan procedure. The Estonian Prime Minister said that after disconnecting the country’s grid from Russia and connecting to Europe, Estonia now needs to defend its energy infrastructure. The EU Commission President highlighted that the Amari Air Base is an important part of Europe’s defence infrastructure.
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