EU leaders to decide on financial support for Ukraine for 2026-27 - Merz
German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that he expects that at the European Council meeting, which will be held on December 18-19 in Brussels, European Union leaders will be able to complete the discussion of options for financial support for Ukraine for 2026-2027 and reach a concrete conclusion that will be implemented.
"I believe that the European Commission has made excellent proposals. They are also legal, and that is guaranteed. We hope that the process will be completed next week at the European Council meeting," he said on Thursday in Berlin at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Merz explained that the leaders agreed that, having started the Council meeting on Thursday, they would be able to continue the discussion on Friday in order to "come to a conclusion on this issue."
"Ukraine has enough financial resources for the first quarter of 2026, but it is also true that we have not fully financed the entire year 2026, so additional funds will be needed during 2026. The commitments that we have made and which are reflected in the budget for 2026 are 15 billion euros for Ukraine. This is our targeted support for Ukraine. We have also mobilized a reserve fund, but all this has already been fixed and resolved in the budget for 2026. At the moment, no other payments are planned directly from Germany," the German Chancellor said. He did not rule out that EU countries "will have to provide certain guarantees regarding the use of Russian assets." "The instrument I proposed is, in essence, a loan provided from the EU budget and secured by Russian assets. This is a continuous process. Negotiations are in full swing... and, of course, as soon as there are decisions that will affect the budget, I will have to inform the coalition parties in more detail than I did yesterday. Next week at the latest, I will... inform the parliamentary groups of the Bundestag, but it is too early (to talk about it) because we have not yet made any final decisions," Merz said.
