EU leaders to press Burnham to pay more for Ukraine's defence

European Union leaders will press Andy Burnham to contribute more to Ukraine's defence next year when he meets them at a summit in Brussels next month.

EU officials argue that the UK, Canada and Japan should do more to support Ukraine, and say requests for extra money at recent international meetings have not been answered.

A €70bn shortfall

Ukraine says it faces a funding gap of €70bn (£58bn) in 2027 to pay for its defence and civilian needs. According to the European Commission, the EU and its member states currently pay for 80 per cent of Ukraine's financial needs, when it believes a fair share would be two-thirds, with other allies covering the rest.

"We will continue to lead, but we urgently need other partners to step up," the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said last week.

The EU agreed a €90bn loan last year to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's needs in 2026 and 2027, but costs are rising as Russia escalates its attacks and the war enters its fifth winter.

Ms von der Leyen will make a similar request to the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, at an EU-Canada summit next week. The request to Mr Burnham will come when he meets her and the European Council president, António Costa, for a long-awaited EU-UK summit in Brussels on 20 November.

How much does the UK give?

The British government says it has committed £25bn to Ukraine, including £16bn in military aid. The UK is Ukraine's fourth largest donor, behind the US, Germany and France, according to the Kiel Institute's support tracker.

But weighted by the size of each economy, the UK gives 0.86 per cent of national income, compared with 1.1 per cent from France and 1.5 per cent from Germany, though the gap narrows when their contributions to EU programmes are stripped out. Nordic and Baltic countries give far more, with Denmark at 4.2 per cent and Estonia at 3.8 per cent.

The chancellor, John Healey, said earlier this month he was "working on different ways we can step up support for Ukraine: military, diplomatic and economic". He presents his first budget next week, under pressure from rising borrowing costs.

Brexit reset deals

Ukraine will be one of several subjects at the summit, where leaders are expected to agree three deals: a food and animal health agreement to cut Brexit paperwork for exporters, linking the EU and UK carbon trading schemes to protect British industry from European carbon taxes, and a youth mobility scheme letting 18 to 30-year-olds live, work, travel and study on both sides of the Channel.

The commission has proposed putting off the question of university tuition fees, one of the last big sticking points, for technical talks within six months of the summit. The UK wants to charge EU students the international rate, about four times the home fee, while the EU wants a return to pre-Brexit home fees. EU sources say they still have leverage, because the other two deals will not take effect without a youth mobility agreement the EU is happy with.

For businesses in Birmingham that export food and drink to Europe, a deal to cut veterinary checks and paperwork could make a real difference, while universities in the city would be among those affected by any agreement on fees for EU students.