Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 19, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleThe EU summit will discuss enhancing European defense while avoiding the impression of distancing from the US, with potential disagreements on Ukraine.
(Adds dropped source in headline)
BERLIN (Reuters) - This week's European Union summit will discuss ways of strengthening Europe's ability to defend itself alone but try to avoid creating the impression Europe is distancing itself from the U.S., a German government official said on Wednesday.
"We don't want to give the impression we are seeking to decouple ourselves from the U.S.," the official told a briefing ahead of the summit, to be held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, likely to be Chancellor Olaf Scholz's last.
He added that there was a chance that the summit's conclusions on Ukraine would reflect the views of all but one member, as happened last time, when Hungary refused to sign up to conclusions shared by the 26 other states.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Rachel More)
The main topic is the EU summit's focus on strengthening European defense while maintaining relations with the US.
Germany wants to avoid giving the impression that Europe is seeking to decouple from the US.
The conclusions may reflect the views of all EU members except Hungary, as seen in previous discussions on Ukraine.
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