Leaders of eight easternmost European Union nations are gathering in Helsinki on Tuesday to plot a roadmap for how to secure as much funding as possible for building up defences against Russia.
Convened by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, heads of government from Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania are expected to set in motion work on defence capabilities for which to seek funding from the bloc, according to an official familiar with the matter.
The efforts will focus especially on the period starting in 2027 when the EU’s next long-term budget kicks in. The leaders plan to issue a communique on priorities, including drone defenses and military mobility, said the official, who declined to be named discussing the plans.
The meeting underscores the fact that EU member states closest to Russia remain wary of their belligerent neighbour despite progress toward peace in Ukraine. The US on Monday offered more significant security guarantees to Kyiv as part of President Donald Trump’s push to end the war. It remains unclear whether Russia will agree to the deal.
Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago prompted the biggest push to rearm in Europe since World War II. Meanwhile, the northern enlargement of NATO — bringing in Finland in 2023 and Sweden in 2024 — reshaped the continent’s security architecture.
Aim to draw in other interested member states
Still, the need for more defensive gear is most acute on the eastern edges of the bloc where the Russian poses the biggest threat, Orpo has said, explaining why he convened the summit. Once the work begins, the aim is to draw in other interested member states from the West, especially Germany, but also Denmark and the Netherlands, the official said.
The EU has traditionally had a very limited role in defence as many of its members also belong to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The capitals have also sought to keep such matters at their own discretion.
This approach is now being called into question as the EU needs to start tackling projects too large for any member state to handle alone. While the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — is attempting to centralise industrial planning and encourage joint procurement, large member states such as Germany are pushing back.
There’s a risk that four flagship projects — including drone defence, border surveillance as well as air and space shields — which the Commission proposed and called on capitals to endorse by the end of the year, may not be blessed by leaders at their summit in Brussels on Thursday.