Chief EU diplomat Kallas' billion-euro proposal for Ukraine is criticised for lack of specifics

A proposal by the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, to allocate billions of euros in military aid to Ukraine has stalled because of the lack of concrete implementation plans.

Source: European Pravda

Details: Kallas' plan to allocate billions of euros for military support to Ukraine was first presented at an extraordinary EU summit on 6 March. She later named the figure of €40 billion. 

However, European Pravda has reported that even then, EU officials expressed confusion over the abstract nature of the plan, the cost of which has changed several times.

European Pravda notes that even discounting opposition from Hungary – whose stance was clear from the outset – Kallas still failed to secure unanimous support for her initiative across Europe.

This lack of consensus was reflected in the search for wording to describe Kallas' plan in the conclusions of the 20 March EU summit, which were revised at least twice.

The final version of the conclusions mentioned Ukraine's specific need for artillery ammunition, but it also stressed that supporting the top EU diplomat’s plan was not mandatory.

European Pravda sources revealed that Italy, France and Slovakia were the most insistent on the wording of the military aid section being amended.

These countries were united in their opposition to one of the key elements of Kallas' original proposal: that every EU state would make mandatory contributions to Ukraine’s military support fund, with the amounts calculated on the basis of each state's Gross National Income (GNI).

One senior EU diplomat remarked that regardless of whether or not individual states wished to participate in Kallas' project, her proposal remained "very raw" and did not provide sufficient clarity for governments to contribute billions of euros from their national budgets.

The source explained that while some officials were pressing for immediate decisions, citing the fact that it was nearly halfway through the year and Ukraine needed help, there were reservations about how the spending could be justified when there was no clear proposal.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!