EU leaders on Thursday broadly welcomed a blueprint from Brussels to help ramp up defence spending to face Russia -- but a raft of countries pressed to go further and deploy joint borrowing.

Many EU governments say they are in favour. But how it would work is likely to be the subject of fierce debate - over who should have the power to decide on joint projects, who sh

The European Union plans to dramatically ramp up defence spending, mobilizing €800 billion ($868 billion) over the next four years, including €150 billion in loans for arms projects and exemptions from EU debt rules for defence investments.