The European Meeting in Brussels | An Important Decision for Ukraine

The EU Meeting in Brussels 

Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Brussels ahead of an emergency defense Summit with senior EU leaders as Europe prepares to ramp up defense spending. Ursula von der Leyen President of the European commission said this morning that leaders were meeting to re-arm Europe and further cement their support for Ukraine she says extraordinary times call for Extraordinary Measures saying “this is a watershed moment for Europe and Ukraine is part of our European family, it's also watershed moment for Ukraine; Europe faces a clear and present danger and therefore Europe has to be able to protect itself, to defend itself as we have to put Ukraine in a position to protect itself and to push for lasting and just peace we want peaceful strength and this is the reason why I present today to the leaders the rearmed Europe. Re-arm Europe plan provides up to 800billion EUR for defense investment, it gives the member states fiscal space to invest in defense, it gives the member states possibility to invest in the Ukrainian defense industry or to procure military capabilities that go right away to Ukraine so it is to the benefit of re-arming Europe, rearming the European Union but also arming Ukraine in its existential fight for its sovereignty and territorial Integrity”.

Well Ukraine's President Zelensky also addressed the Press ahead of the summit saying that he is grateful for European support, he says “We are very thankful that we are not alone and this are not just words we feel it it's very important you made a strong signal to Ukrainian people to Ukrainian Warriors to civilians to all our families and it’s great that we are not alone, we feel it and we know it. Thank you so much for everything and signals to increase our production and signals to within new program to increase the European security that's I think the great decisions, thank you”. President Zelensky was there on his way into that meeting. Reporters who were in Brussels, in there in the building when President Zelensky arrived and Ursula von der Leyen said that this is a watershed moment for Europe, President Zelensky got the warm reception, the arms that were put around his shoulder the fact that he was there live to the media for quite a while so all the cameras could capture the images that will be sent and viewed by the Kremlin and by the White House in terms of what they can achieve today this is an emergency Summit so it hasn't been weeks and months in the planning so there isn't a big list of things they're going to tick off and agree on of course even if there is agreement so I think there'll be more strong words later but in the Here and Now president Zelensky desperately wants this help, particularly if the Americans are stepping back in terms of military supplies they're sending and not sharing intelligence with Ukraine. So that is one thing they're looking at as a matter of urgency and then on the other hand they're talking about investing billions of Euros in the defense industry in Europe in the years and decades to come now.

We got an indication of the sort of discussions happen from the arrivals when the various politicians arrived the leaders and some of them chose to speak and interestingly just sort of catching up on a few of the things that were said, Donald Tusk who is the Polish Prime Minister who used to actually share the meeting of the 27 EU countries he was saying that the first priority needs to be to secure the EU's border so he's looking at possible aggression from Russia in the future on EU soil, whether that's the Baltic States or elsewhere so that's one thing they'll be  looking at also I think what may come up today even though it's not really on the agenda is what president macron of France has been talking about he's been raising the possibility of France using their so-called nuclear Shield their nuclear capabilities and extending it to other countries maybe Germany for example if the Americans are going to walk away from European security and today we heard a few people saying actually that sounds like a good idea but Olaf Scholz who's the German leader not for much longer he was saying well you know Europe shouldn't give up on us nuclear deterrent so I think you know lots of different speeds that leaders want to work at maybe different directions but all agree this is a really critical moment and it can't be a question of lots of platitudes and nothing comes out of it in the coming weeks and months. These were some things that were being expected prior to the meeting, as it was quite visible and indicated from the talks and arrivals of the politicians.

We've been talking about there are two real agendas there today. They're talking about boosting European defense spending that is what we heard from the leaders there initially and mainly in the meeting and even after the meeting too. What they would be talking about but also of course expressing support for Ukraine, President Zelensky very much a part of that meeting, so we returned to Brussels when that meeting was underway and where we got a little bit more. Let's talk about the UK defense secretary, because he is expected to discuss the US decision to pause intelligent sharing with Ukraine with his counterpart in Washington today John Healey will join Pete Hegseth on Thursday for a bilateral meeting on a possible peace plan while efforts continue to bridge a transatlantic rift this over the country's future security and it is worth saying that Sir Keir Starmar isn't at that meeting in Brussels. There are 27 leaders who are not there today but as we say Sir John Healey will be meeting the US defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington to talk about that transatlantic issues.

Many of the European countries were also willing to join the coalition of the willing formed by Sir Keir Starmer the Prime Minister of UK.

 Could it be U.S. VS Ukraine? To learn more about the “coalition of willing” and the reason for Zelensky to go Europe; VISIT.