Updated

EU Council President Antonio Costa kept Ukraine's 2027 financing talks on the late-November agenda despite German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's request to prioritise them earlier, the Kyiv Independent reported on November 11, 2026. In a letter to Merz seen by the Kyiv Independent on November 10, Costa said Ukraine's financing needs would be addressed at the Special European Council in Brussels on November 26-27, alongside the EU's next seven-year budget, with the European Commission expected to submit a proposal beforehand. Merz had written on November 9 that support for Ukraine was a shared European responsibility and that a small number of member states were carrying bilateral aid unfairly. Costa said he would make time for a broad discussion on Ukraine at the informal European Council in Dublin, without changing the financing agenda. The article puts Ukraine's 2027 shortfall at an estimated 70 billion euros, with the EU expected to cover about 45 billion euros. The EU has not agreed how to fund its share, and Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Bulgaria have resisted Germany's demand that all members share the burden. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called Merz's approach "blackmail."