The EU will call on Canada and Britain to increase funding for Ukraine - media
Kyiv • UNN
The EU is seeking partners to cover Ukraine's €70 billion funding shortfall in 2027. Brussels will approach Canada and Britain.
The EU is preparing to try to persuade Canada and the United Kingdom to increase their support for Ukraine as part of efforts to address the €70 billion funding shortfall Ukraine will face in 2027. Politico reports, writes UNN.
Details
The EU-Canada summit on October 29–30 and the EU-UK summit on November 20 will give Brussels an opportunity to express its position at the highest level. As Ukraine’s funding needs grow and uncertainty persists over U.S. support, Brussels is increasingly turning to non-EU allies to make a greater contribution, five EU officials, including two from the European Commission, and two EU diplomats said.
The EU and its member states provide 80 percent of external aid to Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. “We urgently need other partners to step up,” she said.
The EU has committed to providing a €90 billion loan for 2026 and 2027, intended to cover approximately two-thirds of Ukraine’s needs. Brussels expected other partners, including Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Norway, to provide another €45 billion, but a significant portion of these funds is arriving slowly, as other governments have yet to approve or allocate the support Brussels had counted on.
Brussels is heading into negotiations on closer economic and defense ties with London and Ottawa. EU diplomats and officials said they do not expect a formal agreement, but the partners’ support for Ukraine is likely to shape the political climate surrounding the talks.
The EU has also raised the issue of Ukraine’s financial needs for 2027 at meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the G7 and the G20, as well as with the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
“During my meetings in Bangkok, the need to ensure financial support for Ukraine in 2027 was an important topic,” said European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis, referring to meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group last week. He said he had called for “a broad sharing of the burden and stressed the importance of international partners doing their part, as Ukraine continues its fight against Russian aggression.”
All EU officials and diplomats emphasized that this push was not a criticism of the United Kingdom or Canada, which are staunch supporters of Ukraine. The point, they said, is that Ukraine’s needs have grown.
The United Kingdom says it has allocated a total of £25 billion to Ukraine, while Canada has pledged the equivalent of €5.4 billion in military aid and €8.2 billion in direct financial support.
The EU and its member states say that since Russia’s full-scale invasion, they have contributed more than €231 billion, including military aid, budget support and guarantees, support for Ukrainians living in the bloc, and proceeds from frozen Russian assets — a sum that one senior EU diplomat described as having already been “exceeded.”
According to a European Commission spokesperson, addressing Ukraine’s financial needs has become “the central discussion at every meeting” with partners supporting Ukraine.
According to a senior diplomat, upcoming elections in a number of bloc countries, combined with the unpredictability of Washington’s support for Kyiv, mean that European countries need to look beyond their own budgets. “We need to think broader and on a larger scale,” he said.
The EU is also urging the Ukrainian government to secure greater support from non-EU countries. “This is the first next step they need to secure from their partners,” the European Commission spokesperson said.
Canada and the United Kingdom
EU ambassadors intend to discuss the upcoming Canada and UK summits tomorrow, with Ukraine’s financing expected to be part of the discussions, two diplomats said.
Brussels wants to use preparations for the meetings to press for broader support, "without pointing fingers," a senior diplomat said. But the EU "will not bend to Trump" or directly link favorable treatment to contributions to Ukraine, they added.
The European Commission has not determined what it will ask of partners or how any request might be linked to talks on trade and defense. The diplomat said the EU still needs to establish "to what extent this will affect bringing these points together."
Von der Leyen proposed making Canada the EU's first "associated member" in her state of the union address last month. The October summit in Montreal is an opportunity to develop the idea.
Ottawa will participate in the EU's SAFE program, which finances joint defense procurement, giving Canadian companies preferential access to SAFE-funded contracts. Closer cooperation in defense and access to industry could become part of a broader conversation about support for Ukraine, one of the diplomats said.
In a statement, Catherine Serri, spokesperson for Canada's Privy Council Office, said that Ottawa "is and has been an unwavering supporter of Ukraine," and that Canada has allocated nearly 26 billion Canadian dollars in military, financial and humanitarian aid. "Canada continues to support Ukraine and continues to work with international partners on Ukraine's needs," Serri said.
The summit in the United Kingdom is expected to advance Prime Minister Andy Burnham's promised reset of relations with the bloc, including agreements on youth mobility, food and emissions trading. Burnham said the status quo is "not good enough" and wants the United Kingdom to move closer to the EU.
London wants British companies to be considered European under the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, which would give preference to goods made in Europe in government contracts and industrial support. British officials are concerned that UK firms could lose out, despite the close ties between British and European supply chains.
Three British officials said Tuesday that they had not heard of any request for the United Kingdom to provide more support to Ukraine in exchange for its companies being eligible to participate under the law. A fourth EU official said Ukraine is expected to be included in the summit declaration with the United Kingdom, but that this would reflect both sides' efforts to help Kyiv, rather than a Brussels demand for greater support.
Japan and Australia
The EU is also pressing Japan to increase its contributions, with one senior EU official saying that it is falling behind in 2026. A person familiar with thinking in Tokyo rejected the idea that Japan is not making its own contribution, saying that Tokyo has already provided Kyiv with about $20 billion in support, but that there could be room for more if Ukraine makes such a request.
Tokyo also seeks guarantees that Japanese companies will retain access to the EU market, following concerns that "Made in Europe" preferences under the EU's Industrial Accelerator Act could put its firms at a disadvantage.
Australia says it has not yet received a request to increase funding for Ukraine for 2027. Canberra is likely lower on the list, if it is on it at all, given that its prime minister and foreign minister met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the UN General Assembly last month and announced additional funding and a security agreement, an Australian official said.