EU leaders seek a big boost in Ukraine military support but make little progress on Russia sanctions

Yahoo

4 hours ago

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine's pressing military needs, and expressed support for the country's quest to join their ranks, but they made little headway with new sanctions against Russia.
At a summit in Brussels, the leaders said it was important to deliver more 'air defense and anti-drone systems, and large-caliber ammunition, to help Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right to self-defense, to protect its citizens and territory against Russia's intensified daily attacks.'
They also underlined the need to help support Ukraine's defense industry, which can make weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via videolink.
Russian forces have made slow gains at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, but it has been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged equipment. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has relied heavily on drones to keep the Russians back.
Hungary's objection
Months of U.S.-led international efforts to stop the more than three years of war have failed. As hostilities have ground on, the two sides have continued to swap prisoners of war.
The leaders said the bloc 'remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine's path towards EU membership.' That message comes a day after NATO leaders refrained from putting a reference to Ukraine's hopes of joining the military organization in their summit statement, due in large part to U.S. resistance.
The EU is working on yet another raft of sanctions against Russia, but the leaders made little headway. A key aim is to make further progress in blocking Russia's 'shadow fleet' of oil tankers and their operators from earning more revenue for Moscow's war effort.
The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. More than 2,400 officials and entities – usually government agencies, banks and organizations – have been hit.
The statement on Ukraine was agreed by 26 of the 27 member countries. Hungary objected, as it has often done. At a NATO summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that 'NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.'
'All options remain on the table'
The leaders also heard from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on ongoing trade talks with the U.S. aimed at warding off President Donald Trump's threat of new tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods coming into the US.
Von der Leyen said at a post-summit news conference that she and Trump had agreed at the Group of Seven summit 'to speed up the work' ahead of a July 9 deadline. Trump at first laid out a 20% tariff and then threatened to raise that to 50% after expressing dissatisfaction with the pace of talks. Those would come in addition to a 25% tariff on cars from all countries and 50% on steel from all countries, measures that would hit the EU's auto industry.
Von der Leyen said that Europe had received the latest proposal from the U.S. and was analyzing it. She said the commission, which handles trade for the 27 EU member states, preferred a deal but was also preparing a list of U.S. goods that could be hit with 'rebalancing' tariffs.
'We are ready for a deal,' she said. "At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached, this is why we consulted on a rebalancing list and we will defend the European interest as needed, in short, all options remain on the table.'
Trade and war
Trump has rejected an EU offer of zero tariffs on both industrial goods and cars, while the EU has rejected changes in the regulation of digital companies and in its national value-added taxes, which economists say are trade neutral because they are levied on imports and domestic goods alike.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he told Trump in a phone call during the EU summit that the Europeans were 'willing to find an agreement.'
'But we don't want to reach a deal at all costs,' Macron warned. U.S. tariffs would 'inevitably' lead to retaliatory measures on U.S. goods on the European market, he said.
The trade issue is crucial for the EU's trade dependent economy; the commission's forecast for modest growth of 0.9% in GDP this year was based on an assumption the EU could negotiate its tariff down to Trump's 10% baseline minimum for almost all trade partners.
In other developments, the EU leaders deplored 'the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation.' They called 'on Israel to fully lift its blockade.'
They also said that their European Council 'takes note' of a report saying that there are signs that Israel's actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in an agreement governing EU-Israel ties. The report was debated by EU foreign ministers on Monday, but the bloc is divided over what to do about it.
The ministers will discuss the issue again at their next meeting on July 15. Suspending ties, including on trade, would require a unanimous decision, which is likely impossible to obtain from staunch backers of Israel like Austria, Germany and Hungary.
The head of the main Greens party group in the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout said that 'the EU is losing all credibility in light of the devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East,' and insisted that the Association Agreement must be suspended.
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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Sylvie Corbet in Brussels and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed to this report.
Sam Mcneil, The Associated Press