Chancellor Merz signs off on €90bn EU Ukraine support package

The basic thing to clear up is this: there was no fresh May 3 sign-off by Friedrich Merz on a new €90 billion Ukraine package. The decisive EU step already happened on April 23, 2026, when the Council of the EU adopted the last legal piece needed to let the money start flowing. Merz mattered politically, and he had pushed hard for the loan, but this is really an EU financing story with a German politics tail. (consilium.europa.eu) ### What actually got approved? It’s a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine covering 2026 and 2027. The money is meant to keep the Ukrainian state functioning and to fund defense production while Russia’s war continues. The structure is simple on paper — the EU borrows on cap(consilium.europa.eu)ruption requirements. (consilium.europa.eu) ### Where does the money go? Roughly two thirds of the package — €60 billion — is for defense industrial capacity. That means procurement and production, not just plugging holes in the treasury. The other €30 billion is macroeconomic and budget support, so Ukraine can ke(consilium.europa.eu) anymore, but about sustaining a war economy over time. (consilium.europa.eu) ### Why was this such a fight? Because the EU could not get everyone to agree on the cleaner political option — using frozen Russian state assets directly. So the bloc fell back on joint borrowing under enhanced cooperation. That matters because enhanced cooperation mean(consilium.europa.eu)g unity broke and a workaround won. (consilium.europa.eu) ### What was Merz’s role? Merz was one of the loudest leaders arguing that the money had to move quickly. In mid-April he pushed for rapid disbursement after political resistance from Hungary weakened. He also tied the package to a broader argument that Europe has to sho(consilium.europa.eu). But he did not personally “sign off” on May 3 in the literal sense the headline suggests. (euractiv.com) ### Why is Germany catching heat? Because Germany is big enough that every EU-wide financing plan turns into a domestic argument about burden-sharing. Berlin is already one of Kyiv’s largest backers, and German officials have kept stressing that support will continue. That makes Merz vulnerable on(euractiv.com)ay Europe still moved too slowly and too cautiously. (deutschland.de) ### Is the “0.25% of GDP” point the same thing? Not really. That number comes from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2025 call for partners to devote 0.25% of GDP to support Ukraine’s defense industry in 2026. It is a political benchmark, not the legal structure of this EU loan. Mixing the two makes the story sound cleaner than it is. The real package is an EU borrowing mechanism with specific allocations and conditions. (english.nv.ua) ### So what changed now? The change is that the package moved from promise to executable law. Once the Council adopted the final legislation on April 23, the Commission could start disbursements in the second quarter of 2026. That turns a summit commitment into actual financing capacity — and for Ukraine, that difference is everything. (consilium.europa.eu) ### Bottom line? The headline is directionally right but timing-sloppy. Europe has now locked in a huge two-year Ukraine loan, Merz helped push it over the line, and the real story is the tradeoff: stronger EU support abroad, sharper political arguments at home. (consilium.europa.eu)