Just like that, in one afternoon.

If they could get off their butts and do it that easily, I kinda feel like we've been played all these years.

Rearming is fine, but if you think Putin is the biggest threat while millions of illegal migrants flood your streets, you’re reading the map upside down. Europe’s leaders are spending billions on defense while their own countries are collapsing from within. Secure your borders,…

— Chaotic Genius (@realchaosgenius) March 7, 2025

EU president Ursula Von der Leyen, everyone's favorite Disney witch, got to talk tough and lead the European Trump resistance. A resistance that is only reluctantly physically transitioning from Euro-trash talk from the peanut gallery to brass tacks because Trump told them to go pee up a rope. So they were forced to do something.

 European Union leaders are trumpeting their endorsement of a plan to free up hundreds of billions of euros to inject into their defense budgets after the Trump administration warned that the continent must look after its own security, including Ukraine, in future.

After more than 12 hours of talks on Thursday, the 27 leaders signed off on a scheme that would ease budget restrictions for defense spending, funnel some of the EU’s unused funds toward security priorities and provide 150 billion euros ($162 billion) in loans for military purchases.

As a priority, the funds would be spent on air and missile defense, artillery systems, ammunition, drones and air transport, as well as cyber systems, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare.

Some of the countries with 'we're constitutionally prevented from spending that much' were told to take the brakes off and cough up the cash. Germany is the most prominent of those big-talk, little-do slackers.

All 27 leaders agreed that the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, should loosen budget restrictions so countries that are willing can increase their military spending. The commission monitors whether members are keeping their debt under control.

It estimates that around 650 billion euros ($702 billion) could be freed up that way, and could allow each country to spend at least 3% of their gross domestic product on defense. NATO’s current guideline is that allies should spend at least 2%. The French, nearly bankrupt, are dreaming big, expensive dreams, too.

The EU was thinking about floating loans to help out. The totally socialist and completely broke Spanish are, like, 'just give us the money if you're gonna demand we do this.'

The commission also tabled a proposal for an offer of loans worth 150 billion euros ($162 billion) to buy new military equipment, with material priorities to be based on lessons learned from the battlefield in Ukraine. Air and missile defenses are right up there.

The European Commission said it would raise the money on financial markets, and that around 20 member countries would benefit from the more favorable rates that it could generate.

But the leaders did not welcome the idea with open arms. Instead, they invited EU headquarters staff “to examine this proposal as a matter of urgency.”

France believes the pot is too small. Heavily indebted Spain is demanding free grants rather than loans.

Kids. They're so cute.

Today @ClaudeMalhuret to the French Senate:

“We must rebuild … a hurculean task. Europe will only be a military power again by becoming an industrial power once more.”

Reindustrialise and rearm, the call sounding throughout Europe. pic.twitter.com/twyx7zyJ4P

— Henry Palmer (@HenryJPalmer) March 6, 2025

Economists who regularly monitor the various European economies say they understand where the EU is coming from, but there are some significant problems with the big expansion plans.

The most basic being that most countries can't afford it.

ING Economics, the think-tank of international lender ING Bank, has warned that the planned €800 billion spending spree on defence announced by the European Commission on March 4 was poorly timed.

That was, it said, because many countries that wanted to rebuild their depleted armies were struggling to balance their budgets.

...“At a time when the eurozone economy has fallen back into stagnation, you might think that hundreds of billions of extra fiscal expenditure will be enough to revive Europe’s stagnant economies.

Increased European defence spending couldn't come at a worse time for countries with stretched budget balances pic.twitter.com/5APN6BANTb

— ING Economics (@ING_Economics) March 7, 2025

There is skepticism in the air that the EUs big plans will come to fruition based on their performance so far.

To put it in perspective, all EU countries combined have spent 960 billion $ on defense from 2022 to 2025. In the same period EU has invested 730 billion $ in downscaling and wrecking its economy with investments to allow us to have more expensive energy. pic.twitter.com/AyXcMw9StY

— VivaVoxLegis 🇭🇷 (@vivavoxlegis1) March 1, 2025

In as much as this defense conference was also supposed to be a statement and public opportunity to provide tangible support for Ukraine to put Trump in his place, welp. 

That turned out to be another 'eh...not so much.'

Hugs. Photo ops. A pledge to keep arming Ukraine.

Despite everything that's happened in the six short weeks since Donald Trump returned to the White House, that's about all European Union leaders had to offer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at an emergency summit in Brussels Thursday.

Sure, they hammered out plans to beef up the EU's defense sector, but ― and in the short term this is perhaps what matters most ― they fell short of agreeing on any new commitments to strengthen Ukraine's hand in the immediate future.

Kyiv is grappling with a cutoff in U.S. military aid and intelligence-sharing as Trump's administration dials up pressure on Zelenskyy to strike a rapid peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the gathering in Brussels, diplomats from countries that staunchly support Ukraine had voiced hope that the meeting would deliver new commitments to put Kyiv in a stronger position.

"We have to support Ukraine now more than ever," EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said before the extraordinary summit.

But after 10 hours of talks, and despite a public embrace of Zelenskyy — who addressed journalists flanked by the leaders of the EU's top two institutions, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa — the final conclusions brokered among national leaders focused only on their collective efforts to build up a fragmented defense sector.

The portion on Ukraine didn't even pass muster among the 27 members due to opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who hasn't hidden his support for Putin and who stated his opposition to the statement ahead of the meeting, and stuck to that stance.

Welp.

The major question hanging over Ukraine's future is whether the EU can replace or somehow compensate for a cutoff in US military aid and intelligence.

At the emergency European Council meeting yesterday, the answer was a resounding silence.

🔗 https://t.co/hB9uo3Z7ph pic.twitter.com/NYD6wDN68B

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) March 7, 2025

If it helps Zelensky feel any better, they can barely get out of their own way, less mind take care of him, too.

He probably should have been paying more attention.