BRUSSELS — Ukraine’s war chest stands to get a vital cash injection after EU envoys agreed on a €90 billion loan to finance Kyiv’s defense against Russia, the Cypriot Council presidency said on Wednesday. “The new financing will help ensure the country’s fierce resilience in the face of Russian aggression,” Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said in a statement. Without the loan Ukraine had risked running out of cash by April, which would have been catastrophic for its war effort and could have crippled its negotiating efforts during ongoing American-backed peace talks with Russia. EU lawmakers still have some hurdles to clear, such as agreeing on the conditions Ukraine must satisfy to get a payout, before Brussels can raise money on the global debt market to finance the loan — which is backed by the EU’s seven-year budget. A big point of dispute among EU countries was how Ukraine will be able to spend the money, and who will benefit. One-third of the money will go for normal budgetary needs and the rest for defense. France led efforts to get Ukraine to spend as much of that as possible with EU defense companies, mindful that the bloc’s taxpayers are footing the €3 billion annual bill to cover interest payments on the loan. However, Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian nations pushed to give Ukraine as much flexibility as possible. The draft deal, seen by POLITICO, will allow Ukraine to buy key weapons from third countries — including the U.S. and the U.K. — either when no equivalent product is available in the EU or when there is an urgent need, while also strengthening the oversight of EU states over such derogations. The list of weapons Kyiv will be able to buy outside the bloc includes air and missile defense systems, fighter aircraft ammunition and deep-strike capabilities. If the U.K. or other third countries like South Korea, which have signed security deals with the EU and have helped Ukraine, want to take part in procurement deals beyond that, they will have to contribute financially to help cover interest payments on the loan. The European Parliament must now examine the changes the Council has made to the legal text. | Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images The text also mentions that the contribution of non-EU countries — to be agreed in upcoming negotiations with the European Commission — should be proportional to how much their defense firms could gain from taking part in the scheme. Canada, which already has a deal to take part in the EU’s separate €150 billion SAFE loans-for-weapons scheme, will not have to pay extra to take part in the Ukraine program, but would have detail the products that could be procured by Kyiv. NEXT STEPS Now that ambassadors have reached a deal, the European Parliament must examine the changes the Council has made to the legal text before approving the measure. If all goes well, Kyiv will get €45 billion from the EU this year in tranches. The remaining cash will arrive in 2027. Ukraine will only repay the money if Moscow ends its full-scale invasion and pays war reparations. If Russia refuses, the EU will consider raiding the Kremlin’s frozen assets lying in financial institutions across the bloc. While the loan will keep Ukrainian forces in the fight, the amount won’t cover Kyiv’s total financing needs — even with another round of loans, worth $8 billion, expected from the International Monetary Fund. By the IMF’s own estimates, Kyiv will need at least €135 billion to sustain its military and budgetary needs this year and next. Meanwhile, U.S. and EU officials are working on a plan to rebuild Ukraine that aims to attract $800 billion in public and private funds over 10 years. For that to happen, the eastern front must first fall silent — a remote likelihood at this point. Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting from Kyiv.

BRUSSELS — EU ambassadors are close to a deal on a €90 billion loan to finance Ukraine’s defense against Russia thanks to a draft text that spells out the participation of third countries in arms deals, three diplomats said Wednesday. The ambassadors are scheduled to meet on Wednesday afternoon to finalize talks after a week of difficult negotiations. The final hurdle was deciding how non-EU countries would be able to take part in defense contracts financed by the loan. The draft deal, seen by POLITICO, would allow Ukraine to buy key weapons from such countries — including the U.S. and the U.K. — either when no equivalent product is available in the EU or when there is an urgent need. The list of weapons Kyiv will be able to buy outside the bloc includes air and missile defense systems, fighter aircraft ammunition and deep-strike capabilities. If the U.K. wants to take part in procurement deals beyond that, it will have to contribute financially to help cover interest payments on the loan. The text also mentions that the British contribution — to be agreed in upcoming negotiations with the European Commission — should be proportional with the potential gains of its defense firms taking part in the scheme.  France led the effort to ensure that EU countries — which are paying the interest on the loan — gain the most from defense contracts. In an effort to get Paris and its allies on board, the draft circulated late Tuesday includes new language which says that “any agreement with a third country must be based on a balance of rights and obligations,” and also that “a third country should not have the same rights nor enjoy the same benefits,” as participating member states. The draft also strengthens the control of EU countries over whether the conditions to buy weapons for Ukraine outside the bloc have been met, saying Kyiv will have to “provide the information reasonably available to it demonstrating that the conditions for the application of this derogation are met.” That will then be checked  “without undue delay” by the European Commission after consultation with a new Ukraine Defence Industrial Capacities Expert Group. The new body will include representatives from EU members countries, according to diplomats. The European Commission will raise €90 billion in debt to fund Ukraine’s war effort before Kyiv runs out of cash in April. After facing intense pressure from national capitals, the Commission agreed to deploy unused funds in its current seven-year budget to cover the borrowing costs. If that is not enough, member countries will have to pay the difference. Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin will meet the European Parliament and the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the EU on Thursday in an attempt to solve disagreements on the repayment of the borrowing costs, said one official.

BRUSSELS — The EU and U.K. must overcome historic gripes and “reset” their relationship to be able to work together in an increasingly uncertain world, the bloc’s top parliamentarian said. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola used an address to the Spanish senate on Tuesday to call for closer ties with the U.K. as London steps up efforts to secure smoother access to European markets and funding projects, after the country voted to leave the bloc in 2016. “Ten years on from Brexit … and in a world that has changed so profoundly, Europe and the U.K. need a new way of working together on trade, customs, research, mobility and on security and defense,” Metsola said. “Today it is time to exorcize the ghosts of the past.” Metsola called for a “reset” in the partnership between Britain and the EU as part of a policy of “realistic pragmatism anchored in values that will see all of us move forward together.” Her speech comes after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he intended to try and ensure his country’s defense industries can benefit from the EU’s flagship SAFE scheme — a €150 billion funding program designed to boost procurement of military hardware. That push has been far from smooth, with a meeting of EU governments on Monday night failing to sign off U.K. access to SAFE, despite France — which has consistently opposed non-EU countries taking part — supporting the British inclusion. Starmer has also signaled in recent days that he is seeking closer integration with the EU’s single market. Brussels has so far been reluctant to reopen the terms of the U.K.’s relations with the bloc just six years after it exited. While those decisions lie with the remaining 27 EU member countries, rather than the Parliament, Metsola’s intervention marks a shift in tone that could bolster the British case for closer relations. In the context of increasingly tense relations with the U.S., capitals are depending on cooperation with British intelligence and military capabilities and in key industries. Europe must take “the next steps towards a stronger European defense, boosting our capabilities and cooperation, and working closely with our NATO allies so that Europe can better protect its people,” Metsola said.

BERLIN — German customs officers arrested five men Monday for allegedly violating European Union embargoes on Russia by exporting industrial goods to Russian arms manufacturers. The defendants arranged for around 16,000 deliveries to Russia, according to the ongoing investigation, with illegal transactions amounting to at least €30 million, the office of Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General said in a press release. The arrests come as authorities in Kyiv urge European leaders to crack down on exports of industrial goods and parts that Russia can use to manufacture weapons deployed in the war on Ukraine. Among the five people charged are two suspects with dual German-Russian citizenship and one with dual German-Ukrainian citizenship. Central to the investigation is a trading company in the northern German city of Lübeck owned by a suspect identified by the court as Nikita S. “Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, he and the other defendants have used the company to conspiratorially procure goods for Russian industry and export them to Russia on numerous occasions,” said prosecutors. “To conceal their activities, the defendants used at least one other shell company in Lübeck, fictitious buyers inside and outside the European Union, and a Russian company as the recipient, for which Nikita S. also holds a position of responsibility.” The “end users” of the exported goods included at least 24 listed defense companies in Russia, prosecutors said. Russian government agencies allegedly supported the procurement, according to the statement. The exports involved, among other things, mechanical and technical components for Russian arms production, such as ball bearings and semiconductor devices, according to a report by public broadcaster ARD.

LONDON — Keir Starmer signaled that the U.K. is ready to try again to forge closer defense ties with the European Union, after talks on British access to the SAFE loan program collapsed last year.  Speaking on a visit to China, the prime minister said he was hoping to make “some progress” on spending, capability and co-operation between European countries and Britain, whether through Security Action for Europe (SAFE) or other initiatives. “I have made the argument that that should require us to look at schemes like SAFE and others to see whether there is a way in which we can work more closely together,” he told reporters traveling with him to Beijing.  Negotiations for Britain to take part in the EU’s loan initiative for defense procurement failed in November after a dispute about how much the U.K. would have to pay. The failure to reach a deal has been a source of frustration to Labour figures in the U.K. and European allies who want to show the U.K. can achieve closer alignment with the bloc after Brexit. The U.K. can, for now,  access SAFE as a third country, but is not entitled to fuller participation as was originally envisaged. EU ambassador to Britain Pedro Serrano and British officials have both previously raised expectations that the U.K. could reach an agreement to be included in another round of SAFE, but there is not currently one under consideration.  A European Commission spokesperson said: “We will not speculate on a possible second SAFE fund at this stage.” Another avenue for closer cooperation could center on the EU’s €90 billion loan for Ukraine, which the Netherlands and many other countries would like to see the U.K. join. London could also be asked to pay a fee to join the loan. France, with the support of other countries, last week suggested that third-party countries that take part should contribute. They made the argument that since EU member countries pay interest on the loan it would be unfair if non-EU countries don’t pay anything, according to three EU diplomats.  However, British officials said this idea was not under active discussion. A U.K government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on internal EU processes,” pointing out that the country has so far committed a total of £21.8 billion in support for Ukraine through military and fiscal assistance. European Commissioners Maros Šefčovič and Valdis Dombrovskis are visiting London Monday for a series of meetings with British ministers, ahead of a planned second EU-U.K. summit later this year. Their talks this week are expected to focus on trade. As he left China, Starmer told reporters that he wanted to “get closer” to the EU then he has currently set out, not only on defense and security but also energy, emissions and trade. Referring to a second annual U.K.-EU summit planned later this spring, Starmer added: “We will not only follow up on the 10 strands that we set out at last year’s summit, we’ll also want to go closer with an iterative process.” Jacopo Barigazzi and Jon Stone contributed to this report.

The center-right European People’s Party is eyeing “better implementation” of the Lisbon Treaty to better prepare the EU for what it sees as historic shifts in the global balance of power involving the U.S., China and Russia, EPP leader Manfred Weber said on Saturday. Speaking at a press conference on the second day of an EPP Leaders Retreat in Zagreb, Weber highlighted the possibility of broadening the use of qualified majority voting in EU decision-making and developing a practical plan for military response if a member state is attacked. Currently EU leaders can use qualified majority voting on most legislative proposals, from energy and climate issues to research and innovation. But common foreign and security policy, EU finances and membership issues, among other areas, need a unified majority. This means that on issues such as sanctions against Russia, one country can block agreement, as happened last summer when Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico vetoed a package of EU measures against Moscow — a veto that was eventually lifted. Such power in one country’s hands is something that the EPP would like to change.  As for military solidarity, Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty obliges countries to provide “aid and assistance by all the means in their power” if an EU country is attacked. For Weber, the formulation under European law is stronger than NATO’s Article 5 collective defense commitment. However, he stressed that the EU still lacks a clear operational plan for how the clause would work in practice. Article 42.7 was previously used when France requested that other EU countries make additional contributions to the fight against terrorism, following the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015.  Such ideas were presented as the party with a biggest grouping in the European Parliament — and therefore the power to shape EU political priorities — presented its strategic focus for 2026, with competitiveness as its main priority.  Keeping the pulse on what matters in 2026  The EPP wants to unleash the bloc’s competitiveness through further cutting red tape, “completing” the EU single market, diversifying supply chains, protecting economic independence and security and promoting innovation including in AI, chips and biotech, among other actions, according to its list 2026 priorities unveiled on Saturday. On defense, the EPP is pushing for a “360-degree” security approach to safeguard Europe against growing geopolitical threats, “addressing state and non-state threats from all directions,” according to the document. The EPP is calling for enhanced European defense capabilities, including a stronger defense market, joint procurement of military equipment, and new strategic initiatives to boost readiness. The party also stressed the need for better protection against cyberattacks and hybrid threats, and robust measures to counter disinformation campaigns targeting EU institutions and societies. On migration and border security, the EPP backs tougher asylum admissibility rules, faster returns, and strengthened external borders, including reinforced Frontex operations and improved digital systems like the Entry/Exit System.  The party also urged a Demographic Strategy for Europe amid the continent’s shrinking and aging population. The text, initiated by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), member of the EPP, wants to see demographic considerations integrated into EU economic governance, cohesion funds, and policymaking, while boosting family support, intergenerational solidarity, labor participation, skills development, mobility and managed immigration.  Demographic change is “the most important issue, which is not really intensively discussed in the public discourse,” Weber said. “That’s why we want to highlight this, we want to underline the importance.” 

BRUSSELS — The European Commission’s vice president Henna Virkkunen sounded the alarm about Europe’s dependence on foreign technology on Tuesday, saying “it’s very clear that Europe is having our independence moment.” “During the last year, everybody has really realized how important it is that we are not dependent on one country or one company when it comes to some very critical technologies,” she said at an event organized by POLITICO. “In these times … dependencies, they can be weaponized against us,” Virkkunen said. The intervention at the event — titled Europe’s race for digital leadership — comes at a particularly sensitive time in transatlantic relations, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to take over Greenland forced European politicians to consider retaliation. Virkkunen declined to single out the United States as one of the partners that the EU must de-risk from. She pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as incidents that point to Europe’s “vulnerabilities.” She said the U.S. is a key partner, but also noted that “it’s very important for our competitiveness and for our security, that we have also our own capacity, that we are not dependent.” The Commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty swung behind the idea of using public contracts as a way to support the development of European technology companies and products. “We should use public procurement, of course, much more actively also to boost our own growing technologies in the European Union,” she said when asked about her stance on plans to “Buy European.” Those plans, being pushed by the French EU commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, in charge of European industy, to ensure that billions in procurement contracts flow to EU businesses, are due to be outlined in an upcoming Industrial Accelerator Act that has been delayed multiple times. “Public services, governments, municipalities, regions, also the European Commission, we are very big customers for ICT services,” Virkkunen said. “And we can also boost very much European innovations [and startups] when we are buying services.” Virkkunen is overseeing a package of legislation aimed at promoting tech sovereignty that is expected to come out this spring, including action on cloud and artificial intelligence, and microchips — industries in which Europe is behind global competitors. When asked where she saw the biggest need for Europe to break away from foreign reliance, the commissioner said that while it was difficult to pick only one area, “chips are very much a pre-condition for any other technologies.” “We are not able to design and manufacture very advanced chips. It’s very problematic for our technology customer. So I see that semiconductor chips, they are very much key for any other technologies,” she said.

January 2026 I GB-73006 Disclaimer  POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT  * This is sponsored content from AstraZeneca.  * The advertisement is linked to public policy debates on the future of cardiovascular care in the UK.  * This content has been paid for and developed by AstraZeneca UK  Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has shaped the nation’s health for generations. It remains a leading cause of death and a major driver of long-term sickness, yet it is also one of the most preventable. Today, 8 million people in the U.K. live with CVD, and early deaths from CVD in England have reached a 14-year high.1,2 The reality is stark: without urgent action, one million more could live with CVD by 2030 — and two million by 2040.1  Tackling CVD is not only a moral imperative, it’s an economic necessity. In the U.K., 2.5 million working-age people are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, and CVD contributes to long-term sickness at unprecedented levels3 Each year, CVD costs the U.K. economy an estimated £24 billion, straining public finances, dampening productivity and widening inequalities.4  In July 2023, AstraZeneca convened the CVD-risk coalition — with charities, clinical organizations and patient groups — to shape a coordinated response to these trends.   Today, the coalition has published Getting to the heart of the matter: A national action plan for tackling cardiovascular disease5 — a blueprint for decisive action and a call for the government and the NHS to confront CVD head on. It has a clear message: the tools exist to tackle this challenge, but we need leadership, investment, and a focus on prevention and early intervention to unlock meaningful change.  > the tools exist to tackle this challenge, but we need leadership, investment, > and a focus on prevention and early intervention to unlock meaningful change. Diagnosis and prevention gaps we cannot afford   CVD often arises from detectable and treatable conditions: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, chronic kidney disease. Yet millions remain undiagnosed. Six million people in the U.K. don’t know they have high blood pressure — a silent driver of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.6,7   This systemic diagnosis gap is not the result of a lack of evidence or clinical consensus; rather, the longstanding pressure on primary and community care, fragmentation across services, and declining investment in public health. Between 2015/16 and 2023/24, funding for key preventative services — including smoking cessation and adult obesity support — fell sharply in real terms.8  Additionally, secondary prevention remains patchy across England. Despite clear treatment guidance from NICE, less than half of patients with CVD meet recommended cholesterol levels. Almost 30 percent of hypertension patients are not meeting recommended blood pressure targets or don’t have a recent blood pressure measurement in their records.9   The consequences are clear: progress on CVD outcomes has stalled, premature deaths are rising and those in England’s most deprived areas are four times more likely to die prematurely from CVD than those in the least deprived.10  > progress on CVD outcomes has stalled, premature deaths are rising and those in > England’s most deprived areas are four times more likely to die prematurely > from CVD than those in the least deprived We must place prevention at the heart of our health system.  A vision for proactive, personalized cardiovascular care  Early CVD prevention and treatment save lives and money. It benefits patients, reduces NHS pressure and strengthens the UK’s economic resilience.   A 20 percent reduction in CVD incidence could save the NHS £1.1 billion annually within five years and place 60-70,000 more people into work.11 Recent CVDACTION modeling suggests that even modest near-term improvements in treatment could prevent approximately 61,000 events of heart attack, stroke, heart failure admission and end-stage kidney disease in three years.12   This is not theoretical. We know what integrated, proactive models can do.   Unlocking the power of data and digital tools  Platforms like CVDPREVENT and CVDACTION already demonstrate how data-driven insights from GP records can flag undiagnosed or undertreated patients — enabling clinicians to prioritize, optimize treatment and thus prevent avoidable heart attacks and strokes every year.13,14  Additionally, as the NHS App becomes a digital ‘front door’, there is an opportunity to deliver personalized risk information, lifestyle guidance and seamless access to services.  But digital transformation requires investment in workforce capability, interoperability between systems and national procurement frameworks that can scale at pace.  Tom Keith Roach A neighborhood approach to prevention  Joined-up neighborhood services — across community pharmacies, general practice, specialist teams and local authorities — could identify risk earlier, manage long-term conditions holistically and reduce avoidable admissions.   Community pharmacy hypertension screening has delivered over two million blood pressure checks in a single year, identifying thousands previously unaware of their risk.15    The LUCID program, developed as part of a joint working initiative between AstraZeneca and University Hospitals Leicester, has shown that integrated care across nephrology specialists and primary care can identify high-risk chronic kidney disease patients and optimize their treatment, reducing emergency admissions and long-term NHS costs.16    But to truly deliver change, resources must be rebalanced toward primary and community care. Cardiovascular prevention cannot be driven from hospitals alone. The neighborhood service must be properly resourced, with contracts and incentives aligned to prevention and outcomes, not activity.  A whole-system effort to transform lives and the economy  The forthcoming Modern Service Framework for CVD, promised within the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, presents a critical opportunity. This framework must: * Embed prevention into every level of care  * Enable earlier diagnosis using digital and community-based tools  * Support optimal treatment through data and workforce innovation  * Define clear national priorities backed by accountability  CVD is a health challenge and a national prosperity challenge. We cannot afford rising sickness, worsening inequalities, and an NHS stretched by late-stage, preventable disease. The link between health and wealth has never been clearer: investing in CVD prevention will deliver both immediate and long-term returns.  > The link between health and wealth has never been clearer: investing in CVD > prevention will deliver both immediate and long-term returns. The action plan published today provides a clear, evidence-based roadmap.5 It calls for:  * National clinical and political leadership  * Ambitious targets, including a 20 percent reduction in incidence  * Investment in prevention and the expansion of Health Checks  * Improved uptake of effective treatments, guided by data  * Digital and diagnostic excellence across neighborhoods  * Partnership working at every level  A call to action  CVD has affected too many lives for too long. But progress is within reach. The decisions we make today will determine whether the next decade is defined by a widening crisis or a renewed national effort to prevent avoidable illness.  AstraZeneca stands ready to support the government, the NHS and partners to deliver the change our country needs. The time to act is now.  Find out more at astrazeneca.co.uk   References [1] British Heart Foundation. UK factsheet. January 2026. Available at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-uk-factsheet-jan26.pdf.Last accessed: January 2026. [2] British Medical Journal. Early deaths from cardiovascular disease reach 14 year high in England. British Medical Journal. January 2024. Available at: https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q176. Last accessed: December 2025.   [3] Rising ill-health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK: 2019 to 2023. Office for National Statistics. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/articles/risingillhealthandeconomicinactivitybecauseoflongtermsicknessuk/2019to2023. Last accessed: December 2025.   [4] UK Government. UIN HL5942. March 2025. Available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-03-18/hl5942. Last accessed: December 2025. [5] Getting to the heart of the matter. A national action plan for tackling cardiovascular disease. AstraZeneca. 2025. Available at: https://qr.short.az/r/Getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter. Last accessed: January 2026. [6] Blood Pressure UK. Why is know your numbers! needed?. Available at: https://www.bloodpressureuk.org/know-your-numbers/why-is-know-your-numbers-needed/. Last accessed: December 2025.   [7] Department of Health and Social Care. Get your blood pressure checked. March 2024. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/get-your-blood-pressure-checked. Last accessed: December 2025. [8] The Health Foundation. Investing in the public health grant. February 2025. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/investing-in-the-public-health-grant. Last Accessed January 2026.  [9] CVDPREVENT. CVDP Annual Audit Report 2025. March 2025. Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/65eafc36395e4d64e18a3232/t/6937fb8666a6d23761182c05/1765276550824/CVDPREVENT+Fifth+Annual+Report.pdf Last Accessed: January 2026. [10] Public Health England. Health matters: preventing cardiovascular disease. February 2019. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease. Last accessed: December 2025. [11] Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. The economic case for Protect Britain, a preventative health care delivery programme. July 2024. Available at: https://assets.ctfassets.net/75ila1cntaeh/7CcuI38C3mxgps6lC9O2iA/825bf2a41f933cf719459087c1599190/Tony_Blair_Institute_for_Global_Change__The_Economic_Case_for_Protect_Britain__July_2024.pdf Last accessed January 2026 [12] Into-Action.Health. Powering the prevention shift – The CVDACTION impact model.  September 2025. Available at: https://www.into-action.health/_files/ugd/ee4262_81e75612f13e403aab6594727b338771.pdf. Last Accessed January 2026. [13]Data & Improvement Tool. CVDPREVENT. Available at: https://www.cvdprevent.nhs.uk/. Last accessed: December 2025.   [14] Transforming the prevention of CVD. CVDACTION. Health Innovation Network. Available at: https://thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/case_studies/transforming-the-prevention-of-cvd/. Last accessed: December 2025. [15] NHS Business Services Authority. Dispensing contractors’ data. Available at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/prescription-data/dispensing-data/dispensing-contractors-data . Last Accessed January 2026 [16] AstraZeneca UK. Executive summary of Joint Working outputs. Pan Leicester Integrated Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Transformation Project: a quality improvement project to identify CKD patients in primary care suitable for virtual management to improve patient outcomes. (LUCID). July 2024. Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.co.uk/content/dam/intelligentcontent/unbranded/astrazeneca/uk/en/pdf/work-with-nhs-uk/Executive_Summary_of_Joint_Working_Outputs_Pan_Leicester.pdf. Last Accessed: January 2026

LONDON — Keir Starmer’s government has a crunch decision to make: Whether to keep heating much of the British state via a firm linked to Russian fossil fuels. Under an existing public sector deal, TotalEnergies Gas & Power — a U.K. subsidiary of French energy giant TotalEnergies — supplies the gas used to heat No. 10 Downing Street, the Treasury, and other parts of Whitehall.  That agreement, worth up to £8 billion, expires early next year. Officials are preparing a public tendering process for its replacement, which will be awarded later this year and will run from 2027 to 2030.  But TotalEnergies retains ties to fossil fuel trade with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Now, pro-Ukrainian campaigners and parliamentarians — including the Labour chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Ukraine — want ministers to rule out its subsidiary from winning the new contract.  In a letter to Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who oversees government procurement body the Crown Commercial Service, they warn that “continuing a contract with companies involved with Russia’s energy sector is inconsistent” with the U.K.’s repeatedly-touted goal of undermining Russia’s fossil fuel revenues, which are used to finance its war on Ukraine.    “In view of escalating Russian hybrid attacks against the U.K., and ongoing brutal attacks across Ukraine, public sector procurement must align not only with sanctions but also with government foreign policy, including efforts to deter and disrupt Russian aggression,” they write.  The letter — co-ordinated by campaign groups Razom We Stand and B4 Ukraine —  is co-signed by Labour MP Alex Sobel, who chairs the Ukraine APPG, as well as Green MPs Carla Denyer and Siân Berry, both former party co-leaders. Sobel, who has visited Ukraine seven times since the full-scale invasion, last month called for “maximum pressure on Russia.” OUT IN THE COLD Svitlana Romanko, executive director of Razom We Stand, said that “brutal Russian attacks on our energy systems” had knocked out “energy and heating systems across Ukraine in -20C weather.”  “We implore the U.K. government to end their contract with TotalEnergies,” she said.  Under the existing gas deal, public buildings in Whitehall, and other public sector buildings around the U.K. including NHS hospitals, are supplied with gas for heating and cooking by TotalEnergies Gas & Power.   While the contract itself complies with the U.K.’s ban on Russian gas imports, it has been condemned by Ukrainian campaign groups and Labour MPs because of TotalEnergies’ continued ties to Russian fossil fuels.    The firm holds a 20 percent stake in the Yamal liquefied natural gas facility in Siberia, from where it continues to import Russian gas to Europe under long-term contracts which it says it cannot break.  A TotalEnergies spokesperson said the firm “condemned Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.” The firm “operates legally within the framework of the energy policy and sanctions policy defined by the authorities of the European Union and its member states,” they added.  TotalEnergies has been the gas supplier of choice for the U.K. public sector since 2019, under the two successive CCS procurement contracts.   The new contract — known as Supply of Energy 3 — is now being prepared. A tender notice is expected to be published in June and a contract awarded in December.  A Cabinet Office spokesperson declined to comment on a live procurement process.

Croatian President Zoran Milanović has slammed France for selling Zagreb secondhand fighter jets while providing its rival Serbia with a brand-new fleet. “We look like fools,” he raged last week, “because the French sell new Rafales to the Serbs and used ones to us.” Zagreb finalized a government-to-government deal with Paris in 2021 to modernize its air force by purchasing a dozen Rafale fighters valued at €999 million. The final aircraft, which were procured from France’s own stocks, were delivered last April, replacing Croatia’s outdated Soviet-era MiG-21 fleet. In August 2024, Serbia signed a deal to buy 12 Rafale jets from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation fresh from the factory. That transaction has enraged the Croatian president. Croatia fought Serbia in the 1990s in the bloody wars that followed Yugoslavia’s disintegration. While relations between the two countries have improved dramatically since then, non-NATO Serbia’s close ties with Moscow are a worry to Zagreb, which joined the Atlantic alliance in 2009 and the EU in 2013. Serbia’s own EU candidacy has largely stalled, with Belgrade ditching a Western Balkans summit in Brussels last month. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos called on Serbia in November to “urgently reverse the backsliding on freedom of expression.” French Europe Deputy Minister Benjamin Haddad, who was in Zagreb on Monday to discuss defense cooperation, defended the Serbia contract, saying Croatia should be pleased Belgrade was “gradually freeing itself from dependence on Russia and strengthening its ties with Western countries.” But Milanović hit back that the deal was “implemented behind Croatia’s back and to the detriment of Croatia’s national interests,” and showed “that every country takes care of its own interests, including profits, first and foremost.” The left-wing president added that the Croatian government, led by center-right Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, had erred by not confirming “whether France would sell the same or even more advanced aircraft models to one of our neighboring countries outside NATO.” DOMESTIC SQUABBLES Croatian officials are split over whether the president was right to react the way he did. One Croatian diplomat told POLITICO that Milanović had a point and that France was wrong to sell the newer jets to Serbia after fobbing off Croatia with an older model. But a second Croatian official said the deal was a good one for Zagreb and noted that the Croatian government had signed a letter of intent in December with Paris to upgrade its Rafale jets to the latest F4 standard. “From France’s point of view, the signing of the letter of intent on December 8 in France by the minister [Catherine Vautrin] and her Croatian counterpart aims to support the partner in modernizing its Rafale fleet to the highest standard currently in service in France,” an official from the French armed forces ministry echoed. “The defense relationship with Croatia is dynamic and not set in stone in 2021.” Croatia’s defense ministry said Milanović’s remarks “show elementary ignorance of how the international arms trade works.” “Great powers — the United States of America, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China — have been selling the same or similar weapons to countries that are in tense and even openly antagonistic relations for decades,” the ministry added. “The USA is simultaneously arming Israel and Egypt, Russia [is arming] India and Pakistan, while the West is simultaneously arming Greece and Turkey. This is the rule, not the exception.” In Croatia, the president is also the commander-in-chief of the military but shares jurisdiction over defense policy with the government, which is responsible for the budget and the day-to-day management of the armed forces. Milanović and Plenković are often at odds, a third Croatian official said, arguing the president was using the issue to hammer his political rival. DIRT-CHEAP FIGHTER JETS France has looked to strengthen defense ties with Croatia, which spends over 2 percent of its GDP on defense and is transitioning its Soviet-era military stocks to Western arms. Some of those purchases are coming from France. Plenković was in Paris in December to sign a separate deal with KNDS France for 18 Caesar self-propelled howitzers and 15 Serval armored vehicles, with the equipment to be purchased with the EU’s loans-for-weapons SAFE money.  In the original fighter jet deal, Croatia bought airplanes that were being used by the French air force, meaning they were cheaper than new stock and were available quickly. At the time the decision was criticized in Paris by parliamentarians arguing France was weakening its own air force to seal export contracts. Serbia, meanwhile, reportedly paid €2.7 billion for the same number of jets, which are expected to be delivered as of 2028. China and Russia provide the vast majority of Belgrade’s weapons, with France a distant third.