Europe's easternmost countries have a clear message for Brussels: Russia is testing their borders, and the EU must start paying for the response. Leaders of eight EU states bordering Russia will use a summit in Helsinki on Tuesday to push for targeted defense funding in the bloc's next long-term budget, Politico reports, citing sources, writes UNN.
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They explain this by saying that frontline security can no longer be seen solely as a national expense, according to three European government officials.
"Strengthening Europe's eastern flank must become a shared European responsibility," Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on Monday.
The first-of-its-kind summit, led by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, underscores the growing alarm among the so-called EU eastern flank countries about Russia's increasingly brazen efforts to test their defenses and sow panic among their populations, the publication writes.
In recent months, Russia has sent fighter jets into Estonian airspace and dispatched dozens of drones deep into Polish and Romanian territory. Its ally Belarus has repeatedly halted Lithuanian air traffic, allowing giant balloons to cross its borders. And last week, Moscow's top envoy, Sergey Lavrov, issued a veiled threat to Finland to leave NATO, the publication writes.
"Russia is a threat to Europe… in the distant future," Orpo told the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday. "There is always competition for resources in the EU, but [defense funding] is not something that is taken from anyone."
Tuesday's conference, attended by Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, comes during a critical week for Europe. On Monday, several EU leaders met with US representatives in an attempt to broker a peace deal for Russia's war against Ukraine, just three days before all 27 EU countries gather again for a crucial summit that will determine whether they unblock 210 billion euros of frozen Russian funds for Ukraine.
At the center of Tuesday's discussion will be the unblocking of EU money.
Frontline countries want the EU to "offer new financial opportunities for border countries and solidarity-based financial instruments," one official said.
As part of its 2028-2034 budget proposal, the European Commission plans to increase its defense spending fivefold to 131 billion euros. Frontline countries would like some of these funds to be directed to the region, two officials said, a message they are likely to repeat during the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the EU should consider new financial instruments similar to the bloc's 150 billion euro "arms loan" program called SAFE, the same two officials said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced last week that she had received calls to create a "second SAFE program" after the first version was oversubscribed.
Frontline countries also want to throw their political weight behind two upcoming EU projects to support drone warfare and the bloc's broader defense, two officials said. EU leaders declined to officially approve the Eastern Flank Watch and European Drone Defense Initiative at a summit in October due to opposition from countries like Hungary, France, and Germany, who considered them an overreach of Brussels' defense responsibilities, two EU diplomats said at the time.
The request to reserve a portion of the EU budget for a specific region may also face resistance from other countries. To circumvent this, eastern flank countries should link "improving defense infrastructure with overall [EU] economic development," said Jamie Shea, a senior defense fellow at the think tank Friends of Europe and former NATO spokesman.
He added that the capitals of the frontline member states should also consider "opening [these infrastructure projects] to competitive bidding" for firms outside the region.
Cash will not be the only contentious issue in the shadow of Tuesday's meeting. In recent weeks, the Donald Trump administration has repeatedly chastised Europe, with the US president calling the continent's leaders "weak."
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Countries like Germany and Denmark have reacted to growing US reservations by directly refuting recent criticism and officially labeling Washington a "security risk," the publication writes.
But this approach has angered countries on the front line, realizing that it jeopardizes Washington's commitment to NATO's collective defense, which they see as the last line of defense against Moscow, the publication writes.
This view, the publication notes, also reflects a growing concern within NATO that a peace agreement in Ukraine would give Moscow more opportunities to rearm and redirect its efforts toward frontline countries.
"If the war in Ukraine ends… [Russia] will want to keep its soldiers busy," one senior NATO diplomat said, arguing that these troops would likely be "redeployed in our direction."
"Europe must take on [its own] defense," the diplomat added. But until the continent becomes militarily independent, "we shouldn't talk like that" about the US, they argued: "It's really dangerous [and] foolish."