Borrell expects his ammunition supply aid plan for Ukraine to be adopted on 20 March
Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, expects the EU ministers to approve his suggestions concerning speeding up the pace of military aid for Ukraine, specifically joint purchase of projectiles.
Source: Borrell, on his blog on Tuesday, 14 March, as reported by European Pravda
Borrell presented a proposal of increased ammunition supply to Ukraine based on three tracks:
- Ensure the immediate delivery of more artillery ammunition, notably 155 mm, to the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of existing member states’ stocks, or from pending orders. Borrell proposes to allocate €1 billion for reimbursement of this ammunition, using the existing European Peace Facility (EPF).
- Aggregate demand in Europe and fast-track the procurement of 155 mm ammunition to backfill member states’ stocks and ensure long-term support to Ukraine. He has proposed to mobilise an additional €1 billion through the EPF, for the reimbursement of the ammunition that member states will procure together for delivery to Ukraine. It can be done using a promising joint procurement project that the European Defence Agency has been preparing with EU member states over the last months.
- Support the rapid ramping-up of manufacturing capabilities of the European defence industry. To meet the massive demand to replenish stocks – both for Ukraine and for EU member states – the European defence industry needs support to produce more and reduce production time. In the current geopolitical context, this is essential to help Ukraine, but also beyond that, to make up for the significant deficit in the capacities of our defence industry that has accumulated over the past thirty years.
"To become mutually reinforcing, these three tracks need to proceed in parallel: EU member states will be more likely to agree to support Ukraine from their existing stocks if they receive the guarantee that they can replenish them; and they will only be able to do so if our European defence industry scale up its capacity to deliver," Borrell believes.
In a discussion with defence ministers in Stockholm, everyone agreed on the urgency to move forward, he wrote.
"However, some issues need to be worked on. My intention is to reach an agreement on a package deal on these three tracks at our next meeting of foreign and defence ministers on 20 March, ahead of the European Council on 23-24 March," he added.
On 8 March in Stockholm, Defence Ministers of the EU member states made an agreement to speed up the delivery of artillery ammunition and procure more shells for Ukraine but they are yet to decide how to fulfil these plans.
Earlier, it was reported that thanks to military aid provided by the US and the European countries after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine became the third biggest importer of armament in the world.
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