BRUSSELS (AN) – Europe is coming face-to-face with the painful reality of the Trump administration's sharp retreat from the traditional role that the United States has played as Europe's security guarantor since World War II.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday the European Union would waive deficit spending limits on defense procurements in a bid to blitz defense spending across the 27-nation bloc.
The last time the measure was activated was during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow member countries to spend more on health to confront the global health crisis. She told the Munich Security Conference it will allow E.U. members to "substantially increase" their defense spending.
“Europe has to do more," she said. "Europe must bring more to the table, and to achieve this, we need a surge in European defense spending."
E.U. members are held to strict fiscal policy targets that require them to keep government deficits to below 3% of GDP and debt under 60% of GDP. Exceeding these thresholds can lead to commission procedures and fines.
The measure, expected to be approved in July, is meant to help the E.U. find the €500 billion needed over a decade to defend Ukraine and itself.
Meantime, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration "may be abdicating its historic role as Europe’s security guarantor," according to the Munich Security Report 2025 released ahead of the opening day on Friday.
"For Trump and many of his supporters, the U.S.-created international order constitutes a bad deal. As a consequence, the U.S. may be abdicating its historic role as Europe’s security guarantor – with significant consequences for Ukraine," the report concludes.
"U.S. foreign policy in the coming years will likely be shaped by Washington’s bipolar contest with Beijing. This, however, may well accelerate the multipolarization of the international system."
The conference, a leading global policy forum, runs through the weekend. Its usual focus is on shoring up alliances, but this year's meeting has exposed the growing fault lines between the U.S. and Europe.
Von der Leyen stressed that Europe already leads the world in assistance to Ukraine and has "for too long, the last two decades, kind of outsourced defense and security, or underinvested in it."
“Now we see that there’s an enormous gap that we have to close," she said, "and therefore us together as Europeans, we have to step up, and we have to make these investments, because it’s for our security.”
Asked whether the E.U. can provide security guarantees without the U.S., Von der Leyen said that is best left for NATO to discuss. “We all feel it, what’s at stake. This is a moment in history.”
The Trump administration sows chaos
Ahead of the conference, Trump said he held a "lengthy and highly productive" call on Wednesday with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, the first such call by a U.S. leader since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022.
European leaders also worried over Trump's statements that Russia “fought hard” for Ukrainian territory and should keep it, and that kicking Russia out of the Grouip of Seven's rich industrialized nations was a mistake.
Trump said the U.S. and Russia would “immediately” begin negotiations to end the Ukraine war and confirmed that officials from the two countries would meet on the sidelines in Munich.
Trump later said Ukrainian officials were invited to the meeting, but Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was not told about it.
“There’s been a lot of information about some meetings, some fantastic meetings with some Russians,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “I don’t know about it, but maybe somebody knows more than me.”
Another meeting reportedly scheduled for next week between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia was also not conveyed to him, Zelenskyy said. On the eve of the conference, a Russian drone pierced the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s radiation shield built with European and U.S. assistance.
“This means that Putin is definitely not preparing for negotiations — he is preparing to continue deceiving the world,” Zelenskyy said. “That is why there must be unified pressure from all who value life – pressure on the aggressor. Russia must be held accountable for its actions.”
Trump’s remarks this week have been a gift to Russia’s ailing economy, now geared toward war production, and a contrast to messaging from Trump's special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who has pushed for “maximum pressure” on Russia’s economy.
The E.U.'s new top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, accused Trump of taking the same approach toward Russia that former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and the British government pursued atowards Nazi Germany to avoid war in the 1930s.
“Why are we giving them everything they want even before the negotiations have started?" she asked, noting the U.S.-Russia meetings were being held in the city where Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement that let Nazi Germany annex part of Czechoslovakia. "It’s appeasement. It has never worked."
U.S. Vice President JD Vance surprised European leaders with a speech that omitted mention of Ukraine but inflamed culture wars by attacking Europe's approach to immigration and free speech – and claiming Europe's democratic values are "backsliding."
“What I worry about is the threat from within – the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance's speech prompted Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to directly push back on the Trump administration's worldview. "Democracy does not mean that a vociferous minority can decide what truth is," Pistorius said. "Democracy must be able to defend itself against extremists."
Adding to the confusion, Vance told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Thursday that the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed to Ukraine was “on the table” if Russian officials “aren’t being good negotiating partners.”
A day earlier, however, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stunned allies during his first trip to NATO headquarters by saying America is no longer “primarily focused” on European security, Ukraine must concede territory, and Ukraine cannot join NATO.
The U.S., he added, can no longer be “the primary guarantor of security in Europe" – the traditional role the U.S. has played since World War II ended in 1945. He later tried to walk back some of his comments.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Hegseth's NATO speech a “rookie mistake.”
