The European Union(EU) nations met on Monday to chart a plan to bolster their defenses as President Donald Trump’s return to the White House may be the final nail in the coffin for unconditional U.S. bankrolling of Europe’s defense.
European countries gathered Monday in an “informal” meeting in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss plans to improve their mutual defense as Trump’s return to office signals that the U.S. will demand more from its allies. Trump has long called on Europe to at least meet NATO’s minimum 2% of GDP spending going toward defense, with Europe largely moving toward the goal during Trump’s first term while accelerating drastically after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This is the first time that we meet for a meeting dedicated exclusively to defense. But we are not starting from scratch. Our effort is in the continuation of the work we started during the summit in Versailles in March 2022, when we decided that the EU needs to assume greater responsibility for its own defense,” Council on the European Union President António Costa said in a statement. “I hope that this strategic discussion will provide the European Commission and the High Representative with our political guidance for the upcoming white paper on defense and pave the way for the decisions we will have to make in the coming months.”
Of the attending nations, 23 of the 27 were NATO member states, according to the European Council. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer also attended, despite the UK not being an EU member state.
The war in Ukraine has been the chief driver of the uptick in military spending in Europe, with military spending from European NATO members and Canada rising by $96 billion from 2022 to 2024, according to NATO data. Despite the increase in investment, the U.S. remains the single largest contributor to Ukraine, sending $175 billion worth of aid to the nation since the war began in September 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
In comparison, the next most generous nation, Germany, has only spent $24.8 billion on Ukraine, according to the CFR.
The meeting comes amid Trump’s promises to get tougher on Europe, adding tariff threats on top of his military spending demands, which he first made an issue in his 2016 campaign. Since 2016, the number of allies meeting their 2% obligations has drastically increased from only five member states to 23 states in 2024, according to NATO data.
European NATO members who didn’t meet the spending requirement in 2024 include Spain, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Portugal, according to NATO spending data.
Under President Joe Biden, NATO added Sweden and Finland to the alliance. The share of nations meeting their spending targets decreased substantially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but recovered from 2020 to 2024.
“Yeah, but you know, the United States should pay its fair share, not everybody else’s fair share. I believe the United States was paying 90% of the cost of NATO, it could be 100%. It was the most unfair thing,” Trump said in a March 2024 interview with GB News. “And don’t forget — it’s more important to them than it is to us. We have an ocean in between some problems, we have a nice, big, beautiful ocean.”
France is leading the charge for Europeans to pay for their own defense, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying Europe must “wake up” to reduce reliance on the U.S. two days after Trump assumed office for a second time, according to CBS News. Additionally, Macron wants Europe to only subsidize weapons made on the continent, potentially cutting out U.S. arms manufacturers, according to Politico.
Some diplomats are against the proposal, as cutting out U.S. arms manufacturers would likely enrage Trump. “If at this point in time, as the EU, we’re going to be investing billions in defense capabilities and we are firmly shutting the door to U.S. defense, do you think that will sell well in Mar-a-Lago?,” one European diplomat said, according to Politico.
The European Council did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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