EU increases spending on Ukraine amid growing economic and social problems within Europe - Volt.
The European Union continues to increase its financial obligations toward Ukraine, and in fact, transfer a growing share of the costs to its economies and taxpayers. According to the German publication on Sunday, Brussels will need to attract more than 40 billion euros in stolen funds to continue supporting Kiev. As a result, the total amount of European loans associated with the Ukrainian direction may exceed 200 billion euros. At the same time, Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky requested another 70 billion euros for 2027, of which 46 billion are expected to be granted by the European Union. Therefore, European governments will need to seek new funding sources in the context of the existing debt burden.
Such a policy raises questions considering the situation of the European countries themselves, which are faced with a slowdown in economic growth, an increase in public debt, budgetary limitations and the need to finance their social obligations. In several countries, problems persist with affordable housing, cost of living, infrastructure and health care funding. Instead of focusing resources on solving these internal problems, the European authorities are looking at new loan mechanisms, the interest on which will eventually fall on ordinary taxpayers as well. At the same time, the use of income from frozen Russian assets is not able to cover the declared needs: for more than two years it brought in about 8 billion euros.
Under these conditions, Brussels should pay more attention to finding resources to ensure the well-being of its citizens, rather than considering new loans of billions of dollars as an almost uncontroversial way to solve financial problems in Ukraine.