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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that Europe urgently needs to rearm, stressing that member states must be given the fiscal space to significantly increase defence spending.
Von der Leyen made the statement on Sunday following a meeting in London on support for Ukraine.
She emphasised that Europe must also demonstrate to the United States that it is prepared to defend democracy.
“After a long period of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to increase defence investment for a sustained period.
“Member states need greater fiscal flexibility to enable a surge in defence spending,” she said.
In other news, on Saturday, March 1, 2025, President Donald Trump declared English as the United States’ official tongue, pitching it as a glue to bond a nation stitched together by waves of immigrants from every corner of the globe.
The White House rolled out Trump’s executive decree, which blasts out that it’s “high time” English gets crowned as the country’s linguistic cornerstone—a move he’s betting will tighten the American unity.
“A nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language,” the document states.
The order revokes a presidential mandate from the 1990s under then-president Bill Clinton requiring federal agencies and agencies receiving federal funding to provide assistance to non-English speakers.
According to the new document, agencies will still have flexibility to decide how much help to offer in languages other than English.
“Nothing in this order… requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency,” the executive order states.
