EU needs increased fiscal capacity to address common defense

That’s according to S&D President Iratxe Garcia Perez, who arrived in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“It's important to insist on introducinc a strong budget for defense, not only for Ukraine, but also for the EU,” Garcia Perez td a briefing, adding that military threats pose a “new challenge”.

“Of course, we want to live in peace but, at the same time, we know how important it is to devel our common defense, our common defense industry, and to do that, it's necessary to improve the budget,” the lawmaker admits.

At the same time, the S&D leader says the multear budget of the EU must also take into account traditional picies, while addressing emerging challenges.

“For this reason, it's important for us to have the discussion with the member states about their own resources and about the ways to increase the Eurean budget,” she said.

The EU needs to explore ways of increasing “the fiscal capacity in the Eurean Union to have money for defense and at the same time for the traditional picies”.

On a separate note, Garcia Perez recalled that two weeks ago, the Eurean Parliament approved a strong resution in support of Ukraine, aiming to address common challenges and achieve common goals, deal with the important issues of Ukraine’s EU membership, including continued reforms.

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“We know the aspiration of the Ukrainian country and citizens is to be part of the Eurean Union and we know how important it is to defend these common values, this common way, and we will work together very close with the government and with all those who want to implement the reforms to this end,” MEP said.

The lawmaker stressed the focus of S&D on ensuring unity and pace of taking important decisions at the Eurean Parliament level, including on the Ukraine Peace Facility.

As Ukrinform reportred earlier, the S&D delegation earlier today met with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk.

Photo: S&D, the Eurean Parliament