“As long as it takes.” That was the pledge last week by European Union leaders on supporting Ukraine as Vladimir Putin embarks on a fifth presidential term. New ideas signaled a willingness to break taboos in a primarily soft-power union: The climate-focused European Investment Bank (EIB) will be pushed deeper into defense lending, while frozen Russian assets will potentially support the Kyiv war effort. Leaders want to see less talk and more ammunition.

But what’s still sorely missing is the spirit of Mario Draghi’s “whatever it takes” in 2012, or joint EU borrowing during the pandemic — an economic bazooka that would address the still-glaring gap between geopolitical ambition and reality in Europe, which has to make up for years of underinvestment in defense and overreliance on the US security guarantee while also tackling a €620 billion ($671 billion) investment gap for energy security and decarbonization.

QOSHE - Waiting for a ‘Whatever It Takes’ on European Defense - Lionel Laurent
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Waiting for a ‘Whatever It Takes’ on European Defense

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25.03.2024

“As long as it takes.” That was the pledge last week by European Union leaders on supporting Ukraine as Vladimir Putin embarks on a fifth presidential term. New ideas signaled a willingness to break taboos in a primarily........

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