EU emergency summit on Ukraine: US treats EU as 'junior partner'

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00:00We're going to continue discussing this issue with our Europe editor Armin Djordje.

00:06Armin, James there mentioned at some point the question of European defence.

00:11This is something that's been going around for years now.

00:14Why has it not materialised until now?

00:17I think the EU has actually done a fair bit.

00:19I mean, in terms of straight military aid, it's provided 62 billion euros three years

00:26into this war.

00:27According to the Kiel Institute, which tracks aid to Ukraine and also, of course, Kievan,

00:32the EU has put in place this joint procurement scheme.

00:36So it's procured weapons for Ukraine from around the world if those weapons were not

00:41available in an EU country.

00:42So it has done those things.

00:44The big sticking point in terms of deeper defence reforms in the EU has been this question

00:49of made in Europe.

00:51So in other words, you've got Emmanuel Macron, for example, who's really pushing for weapons

00:56to be made here in the EU, under an EU industrial umbrella and with an EU conception authority,

01:05as it's called.

01:07And it's been very difficult to get everybody onto that same page.

01:10He's probably hoping that this kind of event in Paris might give the idea more impetus

01:15because when they tried to sort of push this idea at the defence retreat on February the

01:203rd, it got a bit stuck.

01:24So those kind of deeper questions still remain.

01:28But of course, the procurement of weapons to Ukraine is probably going to continue,

01:33as will military aid, most likely.

01:36And looking ahead to possible security guarantees in Ukraine, who might be in charge of that

01:45and what form would that take?

01:47I think it's very unclear, Kievan, for the simple reason that the US is kind of treating

01:52the EU as a junior partner in all this.

01:55As James was just saying, the US started this process by calling Vladimir Putin.

02:02We know that there could well be then a second bilateral between the US and President Zelensky.

02:09But the EU then comes as a sort of third element in all of this further down the line.

02:15And Antonio Costa, the president of the EU Council, he put it pretty bluntly ahead of

02:21this meeting in Paris.

02:23He said if Trump wants the Europeans to take on more responsibility for security, then

02:28the Europeans need to be the key actor in designing the new security architecture.

02:34And I'm not sure we can say that they are in a position to do that, given what Trump

02:39is doing and the way he's sort of not working directly with the Europeans at this stage

02:46in the process.

02:48I think you've got to wonder in that case, what is the incentive for the EU at this stage

02:52to say, OK, Donald Trump, here are all the things that we can commit to when he's not

02:58actually really involving the Europeans, when they don't have a seat at the metaphorical

03:03table at the moment.

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