The European Commission has told member states it wants a political agreement on how to finance Ukraine in 2027 before the end of this year, according to an internal document seen by the Brussels news site Rapporteur.
The paper, circulated to EU governments, said work should begin on solutions for the remaining gap “with the aim to reach a political agreement before the end of the year”. It also pressed for flexibility in any new instrument so money could follow what it described as fast-changing battlefield needs.
The document was drawn up after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the European Council on October 16 that the war would cost his country €155 billion next year. He asked the 27 leaders to find a further €70 billion on top of what the bloc has already promised.
That request overshoots the €135 billion Brussels had estimated as Ukraine’s total needs for 2026 and 2027 together. It also lands while the European Union is still unable to agree how to spend its own money after 2027.
European Council President António Costa tasked the Commission on October 16 with producing a concrete proposal, to be put to a special summit in Brussels on November 26-27. That meeting is also meant to unblock the bloc’s long-term budget for 2028-2034, on which leaders barely moved at the October summit.
Costa has since said the EU would cover about two-thirds of the new request and that a decision could come in November. Britain, Canada and Norway have been asked to provide the rest.
Officials and diplomats expect the answer to be another loan raised on the capital markets, along the lines of the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan agreed in December 2025 after Belgium blocked the use of frozen Russian assets.
Only about €20 billion of that loan has been paid out so far. The Commission paper urges Kyiv to move faster on the reforms attached to the money.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has not shifted his position. He told the October summit again that he would not expose Euroclear, the Brussels depository holding roughly €185 billion in Russian central bank assets, to Moscow’s courts.
Nor is the money certain to be found among the member states. Bulgaria has said it will not help plug the gap, and Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia stayed out of the last loan, leaving the other 24 countries to carry it.
Should leaders fail in November, Costa has said they would try again at the summit on December 17-18. Zelensky, who has spent months asking EU capitals for cash to strike deeper into Russia, is expected to press his case at both.
