The countries of the European Union (EU) are called to allocate one billion euros in March to fulfill their commitment to provide “urgently” the ammunition requested by the Ukrainian armed forces, we learned this Wednesday from diplomatic sources in Brussels.
European leaders promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speed up the supply of arms and ammunition to allow Ukrainian forces to repel a new offensive by Russian troops.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, recommends in a document consulted by AFP to allocate one billion euros from the endowment of the European Peace Fund (EFF), the fund used for the purchase and supply of weapons to Ukraine, for the purchase of 155 mm shells used by the Ukrainian artillery.
Billion for 250,000 shells
This financing would make it possible to quickly deliver 250,000 155mm shells sold at 4,000 euros each, according to experts in Brussels.
The proposal will be discussed by EU defense ministers at their informal meeting on March 7 in Stockholm.
Estonia has requested to allocate 4,000 million euros to the FEP to buy and deliver one million shells to Ukraine.
Josep Borrell calls on the members of the EU to use their strategic stocks.
The FEP has already released 3,500 million euros and the States have agreed to grant it an additional 2,000 million.
The money is used to reimburse states for supplying Ukraine with arms and ammunition from their reserves.
“Extreme urgency” of deliveries
Josep Borrell suggests in his proposal granting “a favorable reimbursement rate, up to 90%, if the ammunition is delivered before a certain date.” He insists on the “extreme urgency” of the deliveries despite the “exhaustion of stocks in the Member States”.
The FP budget is complemented with contributions from the States based on their GDP; the top three contributors are Germany, France and Italy. Three countries, Austria, Ireland and Malta, do not contribute to financing the supply of lethal weapons and their contributions are covered by the other 24 members of the EU.
Josep Borrell also insists on the need to make joint purchases to continue supplying Ukraine and replenish the stocks of the Member States.
In the longer term, the EU must improve its production capacity and strengthen its defense industry, he stresses.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, supports this approach and has announced “operational proposals” on joint purchases for the European summit on March 23.
Source: BFM TV
