LONDON (Reuters) – Europe urgently needs to rearm and member states must be given the fiscal space to carry out a surge in defence spending, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday after a meeting about support for Ukraine.
Von der Leyen added that Europe also needed to show the United States that it was ready to defend democracy.
“After a long time of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to step up the defence investment for a prolonged period of time,” she told reporters after the meeting in London.
“Member states need more fiscal space to do a surge in defence spending.”
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Conor Humphries)
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