The leaders of the 27 European Union (EU) countries have tasked the European Commission and the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, with developing and submitting in the coming months a strategy to strengthen European defense and increase spending on it. Antonio Costa, President of the European Council of the EU, said at a press conference following an informal EU summit in Brussels.

They have given the European Commission and the EU Council political guidance, and they await the strategy from the European Commission and the EU High Representative, Costa said, noting that the document will be submitted in the coming months and will be the focus of EU leaders' attention at the summit in June.

The EU leaders agreed also on the need to focus on increasing defense production and defense spending, Costa said.

The aforesaid informal EU summit was entirely devoted to defense issues, but no formal decisions or documents were adopted.