EU to Press Burnham at Brussels Summit on Ukraine's €70bn Funding Gap

European Union leaders plan to ask Prime Minister Andy Burnham to raise Britain's Ukraine spending at a summit in Brussels on 20 November, where the 2027 funding gap will be discussed alongside post-Brexit agreements. The request follows unanswered calls to G7 partners for extra aid at recent international meetings, according to the European Commission.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will raise the funding shortfall with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at an EU-Canada summit in Montreal next week, before making the same point to Burnham in Brussels. Ukraine says it needs €70bn, or £58bn, in 2027 to cover defence and civilian costs.

The EU and its member states currently fund 80% of Ukraine's needs, while the commission considers a two-thirds share to be a fair EU contribution. "We will continue to lead, but we urgently need other partners to step up," von der Leyen told reporters last week, without naming specific countries. Officials have prioritised non-EU G7 members, naming the UK, Canada and Japan first, and may also approach Switzerland, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The timing lands as Chancellor John Healey prepares his first budget next week, weighing spending commitments against borrowing costs and an economic outlook that has weakened. Healey said earlier this month that he was "working on different ways we can step up support for Ukraine: military, diplomatic and economic". Britain says it has committed £25bn to Ukraine, including £16bn in military aid.

The UK ranks as Ukraine's fourth largest donor behind the US, Germany and France, according to the Kiel Institute's Ukraine Support Tracker. Measured against national income, UK support stood at 0.86%, compared with 1.1% for France and 1.5% for Germany, while Denmark reached 4.2% and Estonia 3.8%. The gap narrows once contributions to EU programmes are excluded from the French and German figures.

The Brussels summit is also expected to close three agreements: a food and animal health deal to cut Brexit paperwork, a link between EU and UK emissions trading schemes, and a youth mobility arrangement for people aged 18 to 30. The commission proposed deferring university tuition fees to technical talks within six months of the summit rather than risk the meeting. The UK wants EU students charged the international rate, about four times the domestic fee, while the EU seeks a return to pre-Brexit home rates.

EU sources say the food and animal health deal and emissions trading link cannot take effect without a youth mobility agreement acceptable to Brussels, including on fees. "The three elements are a sort of gift to the UK, but not a massive gift," an EU diplomat said, adding: "The leverage is that the UK needs this." A second diplomat said the EU's 27 member states have not agreed to postpone the issue: "There is no clear majority saying 'let's drop it now for six months'."