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European Union leaders are grappling with the uncertainty of how the President Trump-led peace process between Russia and Ukraine will turn out and what it will mean for them. As Teri Schultz reports, assuming responsibility for their own security will take time that they may not have.
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: EU leaders met in Brussels for just the latest of several recent summits focusing on how they're going to deal with dual worst-case scenarios - an attack by their neighbor to the East, Russia, and abandonment by their traditional ally to the West, the United States.
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PRIME MINISTER METTE FREDERIKSEN: (Through interpreter) Within 3 to 5 years, we must be ready to be able to defend ourselves completely in Europe.
SCHULTZ: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is among those who've underscored the stark assessments of their intelligence agencies regarding Moscow's intent, compounded now, as the German Marshall Fund's Georgina Wright explains, by Washington's.
GEORGINA WRIGHT: They need to prepare for the eventuality that the United States wants to play a minor role or no role at all in European security and defense. And so it's really living with those two potential realities side by side and preparing for whatever eventuality, to make sure that Europe is in a position to respond.
SCHULTZ: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has presented a plan to help governments spend more than $865 billion on defense investments over the next four years, with mechanisms such as EU-guaranteed loans and relaxing national debt restrictions. Countries along the front line with Russia are already spending heavily on their militaries and urging their counterparts in the rest of the bloc to lean in, too. Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda.
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PRESIDENT GITANAS NAUSEDA: Like 87 years ago, before the Second World War, we are standing in front of strategic choice - to let the aggressor escalate the violence and fear, or to stop it, to paralyze its ability to intimidate us, and to build a credible wall of defense separating Europe and Russian Federation.
SCHULTZ: But governments further away from the border don't share that threat perception. Leaders of Spain and Italy, for example, didn't like the name, ReArm Europe, that Von der Leyen gave her plan, feeling it was too closely tied to weaponization, too focused on threats from the East. Here's how Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described it.
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PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ: The challenges we face in the Southern neighborhood are a bit different to the ones that the Eastern flank face. This means that we need to strengthen our border controls, our capabilities to fight against terrorism, cyberattacks and these hybrid attacks. And these are the things that, of course, we have to take into account when we speak about this new financial instrument.
SCHULTZ: The plan has now been renamed Readiness 2030, which may have just papered over a more substantial problem, says Nicu Popescu, with the European Council on Foreign Relations.
NICU POPESCU: The further away you're from Eastern Europe, the less understanding public opinion has about the fact that, yes, it's Ukraine's security and future that is at stake, but also an understanding that if Ukraine loses, then the threat is clearly going to be immediate not just for Poland or the Baltic states or Romania but also for Spain, Ireland or Portugal.
SCHULTZ: But Popescu says it may take dozens more summits before that message sinks in across all EU member countries. French president Emmanuel Macron has already called for the next one to be held in Paris on Thursday. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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