EU defence strategy should include Ukraine – European Commission President

The European Union should take Ukraine's military needs into account when determining the future strategy of the EU defence industry.

Source: Reuters, citing Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, as reported by European Pravda.

"Our strategy can only be complete if it also takes into account Ukraine's needs and Ukraine's industrial capacity," von der Leyen said in a speech at the annual conference of the European Defence Agency.

Von der Leyen said Ukraine should be integrated into EU defence programmes to help meet its needs in the war against Russian aggression.

"The first step to achieve this, is to involve Ukraine in the consultation process of the Industrial Strategy," von der Leyen said.

"This should lead to integrating Ukraine in some of our defence programmes, with the agreement of the European Parliament and Council, where necessary."

Von der Leyen said that the European Commission intends to propose a European programme for the defence industry early next year, which will also consider ways of financing the industry.

The politician noted that as part of this programme, the commission will try to understand how it can ensure that sustainable financial investors recognise the defence industry's contribution to European security.

Next year, the EU defence industry must fulfil the task of increasing production capacity for ammunition production to 1 million artillery rounds per year, von der Leyen added.

That goal is unrelated to the EU's plan to provide Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells and missiles within a year, a goal that German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and other officials say the EU is unlikely to achieve.

Background: 

• The president of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, believes that the EU should postpone the sale of ammunition to third countries to provide them to Ukraine.

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