Brussels, 7 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - European Union leaders plan to significantly increase defence investments, following the United States' drastic turn on support for Ukraine, despite internal frictions.

"We are determined to invest more, to invest better, and to invest faster together," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the end of a special EU summit in Brussels.

The commission president pledged to table a legal proposal on a fund filled with €150 billion ($162.4 billion) in loans before the next EU summit in two week's time.

The money is to be used for joint procurement from European producers. A share of the purchases should be for the benefit of Ukraine, von der Leyen said.

Von der Leyen plans to allow individual EU countries to temporarily exempt certain defence investments from the bloc's strict debt and deficit limits.

"This will allow member states greater fiscal flexibility that they need and give them the space to invest in defence immediately and substantially," she said.

The commission president said easing the debt rules could unlock up to €650 billion.

EU countries are to be given the possibility to re-direct regional development funds towards defence investments.

The commission president also hopes to mobilize more private capital and aims to simplify EU rules related to defence investments.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for fewer antitrust rules for cooperating with arms producers and the possibility for EU countries to join procurement project of others.

The EU are under pressure to move forward quickly after Washington announced plans to suspend military and intelligence support for Ukraine, but struggled to speak in unity.

Kremlin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not back a joint EU statement for solidarity with Ukraine and more support for Kiev.

The statement endorsed by the remaining 26 EU countries reaffirmed the bloc's position on the war in Ukraine and its commitment for continued aid for Kiev including weapons deliveries.

EU leaders also laid out their demands for an end to the war, including Ukraine’s territorial integrity, credible security guarantees and no peace negotiations without Ukrainian or European representatives.

"We all want peace," said European Council President António Costa, who chaired the special EU summit, at the end of the meeting.

"The difference is that 26 countries believe that the path to peace is by boosting the defence capacity of Ukraine," he added.

"Hungary has isolated itself from that consensus, it is on its own. An isolated country does not mean division."

The EU and Ukraine are alarmed by the prospect of the US and Russia seeking a peace settlement bilaterally which could grant Moscow territorial concessions, exclude Ukraine from NATO and close the door on US participation in future peacekeeping operations.

EU countries worry that a peace deal favouring Russia could allow Moscow to attack Ukraine again and possibly other European countries.

"There is no doubt that the war in Ukraine, the new approach of the American administration toward Europe, and, above all, the arms race initiated by Russia ... pose entirely new challenges for us," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arriving at the meeting.

"And Europe must take up this challenge, this arms race. And it must win it," Tusk added.

The thread posed by Russia and the US' U-turn triggered a new debate about nuclear deterrence among EU leaders.

Ahead of the EU summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he is considering placing allied European countries under the protection of French nuclear weapons.

Macron was following up on a suggestion by likely new German chancellor Friedrich Merz to hold talks with western European nuclear powers over an umbrella approach.

Germany's complicated post-war history means that it did not develop its own nuclear weapons.

When asked about the proposal, Scholz referred to NATO's system of nuclear deterrence, which is based on stationing US nuclear weapons in some European countries including in Germany.

According to expert estimates, the US still has around 100 nuclear bombs stationed in Europe, some of which are said to be stored at the Büchel airbase in Germany's Eifel region. In an emergency, they are to be deployed by Bundeswehr fighter jets.

Other EU leaders, including Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden, welcomed the idea.

MIA file photo