The European Union's next Multiannual Financial Framework includes up to 100 billion euros over six years to support Ukraine. This is a serious commitment. But honesty is required: on its own, it is not enough.
The context is changing rapidly. If the U.S. scales back its military and financial aid, Europe will face a defining moment. We will have to choose whether to take responsibility for our own security or continue to live under the illusion that someone else will step in to protect our democratic model.
Russia's war against Ukraine is a direct assault on the European security order, international law and the principle that borders cannot be changed by force. Ukraine is not only defending itself; it is defending Europe's frontiers, the freedom of its citizens and the idea of liberal democracy.
Yet while Kyiv continues to resist under enormous pressure, Europe remains trapped in an emergency mindset. The EU still relies on extraordinary funding packages, fragmented instruments — such as the Macro-Financial Assistance mobilized on a yearly basis, the Ukraine Facility instrument and other European budget loans — and guarantees to back lending from financial institutions, including the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
And, most importantly, decision-making is too slow. This approach is no longer sustainable.
What is needed is a structural shift — from short-term crisis management to long-term strategic responsibility, including making support for Ukraine a structural pillar of the European Defence Union proposed by the European Commission in the next MFF.
This article is part of The Parliament's special policy report "Mapping the EU's long-term budget"
Hesitant steps forward
The new MFF includes positive steps. It offers multiyear support for Ukraine, it integrates defense and security by making them a core, lasting EU investment priority — mainly through a new European Competitiveness Fund that dedicates a large, stable budget to defense, security and space capabilities. It also scales up common tools like the Connecting Europe Facility for military mobility and dual-use infrastructure and aligns research programs to support defense-relevant technologies.
Overall, the shift is from fragmented, ad hoc funding to coordinated EU-level financing of joint capabilities, infrastructure and industrial capacity. However, the MFF still lacks a strategic vision that fully reflects today's geopolitical reality.
Europe already spends vast sums on defense, but inefficiently and incoherently. Twenty-seven different systems, overlapping industrial capacities, weak and fragmented supply chains. EU member states operate at least 17 different types of battle tanks and 20 fighter aircraft models, while the U.S. uses only a few. This drives research and development, procurement, maintenance, training and spare parts costs, meaning Europe pays more per unit for less interoperability.
The EU needs a genuine defense industrial policy: joint procurement, real interoperability, coordinated investment in critical technologies and a stronger European industrial base.
Above all, what is missing is political courage. We cannot ask Ukraine to continue fighting while we remain paralyzed by national vetoes. We cannot speak of strategic autonomy without allocating the necessary resources. We cannot claim to defend European values if we are unwilling to back them with concrete action.
Support for Ukraine must become a core pillar of Europe's security strategy — not a secondary budget line debated year by year. This requires unavoidable choices: revisiting spending priorities, overcoming unanimity in key security decisions and equipping the EU with permanent and credible financial instruments.
Shaping the European future
Europe's credibility is on the line. If we fail to stand behind Ukraine, we send a dangerous signal — to Moscow and every actor willing to test European resolve. Such an outcome would invite further aggression, greater instability and renewed attempts at coercion.
This debate is often framed as one of solidarity, but it is also about the EU's capacity to operate as a political and security actor in a more hostile and less predictable world. Failure would put the entire European project at risk.
This is Europe's moment of truth.
Sign up to The Parliament's weekly newsletter
Every Friday our editorial team goes behind the headlines to offer insight and analysis on the key stories driving the EU agenda. Subscribe for free here.