this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing.

But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance.

The 26 other EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, “firmly supported” the statement. “There can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine,” said the draft statement, a response to Trump’s attempt to sideline Europe and Kyiv.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 88 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And just like that America lost that much foreign power.

Good work EU.

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 17 points 5 days ago

But they finally got what they've wanted - NATO spending their agreed amount. Let's see how it goes 🤷‍♂️

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 16 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Trump is an asshole, and the US should absolutely be the leader in defending Ukraine given its stockpiles and technologies and the immediacy of the need.

At the same time, Europe was able to fund some pretty nice social programs by minimizing defense spending over the last few decades. They could only do that with aggressors on their borders by relying far too heavily on the US.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 52 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The US government spends more per total capita on healthcare than any country with nationalized healthcare, but in the US it covers less than a third of the population.

The US spends more on defense than anyone but it keeps fucking things up all around the world to justify those spendings.

The US can afford social programs, it decides not to, so give us all a fucking break.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for so passionately rallying against something I didn't write.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You're saying that Europe can afford social programs because it doesn't spend as much as the USA in defense, implying the USA can't afford those because they're defending Europe, I'm saying the USA has no excuse not to offer social programs even with their current spendings.

I'm 100% sure that Europe wouldn't have cut their social programs if their defense budget was higher, it's a governance choice to let your population eat shit and die and to waste money pretending to help it and that's the choice the USA made.

[–] straightjorkin@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The eu sent $5b more in arms to Ukraine than the us did.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 0 points 5 days ago

They need to increase that but also keep more for themselves.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I keep hearing this but I'm a skeptic at heart. You wouldn't happen to have some sources would you?

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Lots of people are saying Trump is an asshole.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

That is the only part of your comment that doesn't need additional sources

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago

More than likely possible depending on how they came up with valuations on old stock piles from the cold war. Depends on if you value them based on their original cost, or the modern cost to replace them.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

They could also afford to make the disgustingly rich even richer. By a lot.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world -4 points 5 days ago
[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

UvdL is same as Orban, just much smarter and more evil. In general, requirement for unilateral decisions makes it the obvious suspicion that when Hungary vetoes something, in a different decision-making process it would be half of the member states, not just Hungary.

Anyway, this is not even about decisions, just "shows of unity".

I think European defense companies are going to make a lot of money, though. Rearmament is a word that even aesthetically invokes images from German 30s, or Soviet 30s, with those production lines making tanks and field artillery pieces faster than they make cars today. Of course, IRL the game mechanics have changed and they are going to produce different things mostly.