Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 24, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
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Czech PM Fiala calls for Europe to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine and increase defence spending to 3% of GDP, urging fiscal rule relaxation.
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Europe should use money from frozen Russian assets for further military support of Ukraine and relax its fiscal rules to boost defence spending, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Monday.
Czech defence spending must grow to 3% of gross domestic product in several years from around 2% in 2024, to reflect the new geopolitical reality, Fiala said in an address to the nation.
"President (Donald) Trump has decided to completely transform U.S. foreign policy. The speed, thrust and rhetoric are certainly surprising, but the shift of the United States away from focusing on Europe should not surprise us," Fiala said in the speech shown live on television.
"Our fundamental aim now must be a strong Europe. A Europe which can deter Russia from further military attacks on sovereign European states."
Fiala said Europe should relax its fiscal rules to fund defence and also use 93 billion euros ($97.42 billion) from its post-coronavirus recovery funds for defence and related infrastructure.
"For further military support of Ukraine, we must use money from frozen Russian assets from across the entire Europe," he said.
The crisis was making the European Union an even more important alliance than it had been in the past 20 years, Fiala said. But to succeed and boost competitiveness, the EU needs to deregulate and revise its Green Deal decarbonisation policies.
($1 = 0.9547 euros)
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Bill Berkrot)
The main topic is Europe's need to increase defence spending and use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
Czech PM Fiala believes increased defence spending is necessary to address the new geopolitical reality and deter Russian aggression.
Fiala states the EU is becoming a more crucial alliance and needs to adapt its policies for enhanced competitiveness.
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