NATO and the European Union must prepare themselves to provide long-term economic support to Ukraine so it can rebuild and join the West´s democratic family while continuing to ramp up sanctions against Russia and hold it responsible for war crimes, parliamentarians said Saturday.
At the NATO Parliamentary Assembly´s Annual Session in Madrid, NATO and partner countries were urged to keep up defence spending in a more complex security environment involving state on state warfare but also challenges like terrorism, energy sabotage and cyberattacks.
Debate in the Economics and Security Committee (ESC) focused on a draft resolution, drawn up by U.K. MP Harriet Baldwin and to be adopted during Monday´s Plenary Session, calling for Allied nations to help Ukraine better protect its civilian infrastructure as Russia has stepped up its deliberate attacks.
The parliamentarians appealed for the launch of a Marshall Plan-like aid programme to rebuild a more prosperous Ukraine with high democratic standards. Russia, they say, should help to fund the scheme given the damage it has inflicted.
They acknowledged that Ukraine will need sustained financial and political support well after the war has ended, and they call on NATO and EU governments, in close consultation with Ukraine, to develop a strategy for doing so with key international financial institutions.
Jacob Kirkegaard, Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, estimated that the reconstruction costs for Ukraine could run into the “low hundreds of billions” over the next decade, and that the European Union would probably have to foot much of the bill.
As Ukraine progresses on its path to membership of the bloc, “it is quite natural that the EU becomes the dominant actor here,” he said, meaning that it would probably “fall to the EU to provide the funds.”
Kirkegaard recommended that the G7 and Ukraine should decide the spending priorities.
The draft resolution also urged national governments to tighten economic sanctions against Russia and end their reliance on its energy supplies to punish Moscow but also to drive investment in renewable sources.
Nadia Calvino, First Vice-President of the Government and Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation of Spain, underscored the importance of energy independence from President Vladimir Putin´s Russia.
She noted how Spain and Portugal had diversified energy imports and invested heavily in renewable energies. “This has enabled us to resist Putin’s blackmail,” she told the ESC. “Energy autonomy and independence is something of great importance, we have a great opportunity.”
Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles expressed solidarity with Ukraine and also vowed that Spain will reach the defence spending guideline of 2% of GDP by 2029. “These are not just empty words – it will be a reality,” she said in the Defence and Security Committee (DSC).
In the Political Committee (PC), Acting General Rapporteur Tomas Valasek from Slovakia welcomed that NATO has put collective defence and deterrence back at the heart of its new Strategic Concept in light of Russia´s war on Ukraine.
“In the past, the lack of such clarity led to insufficient guidance to military planners, failures to invest adequately into military capabilities, and the lack of adequate contingency plans. This could have cost the Alliance dearly,” Valasek said.
Spain´s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that despite the potentially divisive impact of Russia´s war, transatlantic unity and solidarity have been boosted “in an extraordinary and unprecedented way.”
“In recent months, we have proved that only with unity can we defend our democratic values and principles and respond to those who with their actions try to undermine the foundations of the international order on which the prosperity of our societies has been built,” he said.
