Gives support to European partners (8)
I believe the answer is:
espouses
'gives support' is the definition.
'european partners' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'partners' becomes 'spouses' ('spouse' can be a synonym of 'partner').
'e'+'spouses'='ESPOUSES'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for espouses that I've seen before include "Marries, embraces" , "Takes up" , "Chooses and follows" .)