The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs rejected Estonia’s request for a package of four billion euros to buy munitions for Ukraine and called for pragmatism from member states.
Asked about the statements by the Estonian Defense Minister, minutes before, Josep Borrell replied that the Member States must be “realistic and pragmatic”.
“Money does not fall from the sky and it is not because a Member State says that we should have more money that money will appear miraculously. We have the resources we have and the first thing to do is use them”, maintained the head of European diplomacy.
Hanno Pevkur, as well as Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov, who was invited to participate in the informal meeting of EU Defense Ministers in Stockholm, Sweden, called for one million large-caliber ammunition for Ukraine.
For this, Pevkur stressed, it would be necessary to invest four billion euros. However, the package under discussion is one billion euros.
“When we can give more, we will be glad […]Let’s not talk about infinity”, commented Josep Borrell.
The proposal that will be debated this Wednesday has “three pillars”, one of which is the immediate supply, “in a few weeks”, of the ‘stocks’ existing within the Member States of the European Union.
In the short term, the head of European diplomacy defended the use of what is available but, at the same time, it will be necessary to increase “the defense capacity” of the 27.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs also said that while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the main security problem, there are others that cannot be neglected, so the Union has “other geopolitical challenges” to analyze and not all can be channeled. the conflict in the east.
Source: TSF
