EPP group leader Weber has warned against a hasty agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Clear limits must be set for Putin. He is skeptical about the future role of the USA.
The leader of the conservative EPP in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, has warned against a hasty agreement to end the war in Ukraine. The West should not propose a short-term deal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but must set clear limits for him, said the CSU politician. The “war criminal” Putin represents imperial thinking.
The EPP politician called for more military support for Ukraine. Germany currently only spends around 0.64 percent of its gross domestic product on aid to Ukraine. “The question is not whether we as Europe will survive the war in Ukraine financially; the EU will always have that in its control with its financial and economic power,” he said. Rather, “this year is about the question of what a sustainable peace and security order in Europe can look like in the medium and long term.”
Weber demands higher ones Defense spending
In addition, German defense spending would have to be increased, said the EPP chairman. Investing two percent of economic output in defense is “an absolute minimum,” Weber told the Funke Group newspapers.
Germany and Europe are in Russia's crosshairs. “330 million Americans will not want to permanently defend 440 million Europeans,” said the EPP leader. What is needed is joint procurement at the EU level in order to buy weapons more cheaply, as well as a European missile defense shield and a cyber defense brigade. The NATO eastern border must also be secured together.
What will Trump do?
This should also correspond to the expectations of the future US President Donald Trump. The Republican has long been demanding that the other NATO countries increase their defense spending. In his first term in office, Trump threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO if the allies did not immediately spend two percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
There are fears in NATO that Trump could reduce or even stop military aid to Ukraine after he takes office on January 20th. Trump had claimed that he would be able to end the war within hours of taking office. He didn't say how this would happen. Kiev and its European allies fear that Trump could force Ukraine to make far-reaching concessions to Russia.
