Brussels, (EFE).- The countries of the European Union (EU) agreed today to invest 2,000 million euros in the delivery to Ukraine of 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition over 12 months, informed the high community representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
“A historic decision. As a result of my proposal, the Member States agreed to deliver 1 million cartridges of artillery ammunition in the next 12 months,” Borrell reported via Twitter during a Council meeting that brings together the Union’s Foreign and Defense ministers. .
The political agreement of the Twenty-seven on the “three-track” plan put forward by Borrell on an initial idea from Estonia is for the countries to deliver all the 155 caliber ammunition they can to Kiev as soon as possible, under the premise that they will be quickly responses with new joint orders to the industry.
The EU will finance with 1,000 million euros the immediate delivery and, with another 1,000 million more, the joint acquisitions.
“Ukrainian soldiers are showing great courage and tenacity. But they need ammunition, ”said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, through the same social network, who welcomed the political agreement of the Twenty-seven.
He added that the Commission will work with Member States “to increase defense industrial production in the EU in order to meet this objective.”
The plan endorsed today has three paths and the first of them proposes to deliver to Ukraine as soon as possible the ammunition reserves, mainly 155 mm, that the community countries already have or that they have already commissioned from the industry. That ammunition can be Western or Soviet type.
To do this, 1,000 million euros from the European Peace Support Fund (FEAP) will be used.
The FEAP is a program that, outside the community budget and made up of contributions from the Member States, is being used to finance the delivery of weapons to kyiv.
Those 1,000 million from the fund will allow countries to be reimbursed between 50 and 60% of the cost of the ammunition that they deliver to Ukraine in an accelerated manner.
To ensure that Ukraine can continue to be supported and guarantee EU countries that their arsenals will be replenished, the plan’s second track calls for the European Defense Agency (EDA) to make joint purchases of ammunition or that at least three Member States associate to carry out these acquisitions.
For this second track, another 1 billion euros of the FEAP will be used, which would only be used for reimbursements of ammunition sent to Ukraine and not for ammunition that remains in the reserves of the Member States.
Furthermore, in order for money spent on joint procurement to be reimbursed, those ammunition purchases must be made from European and Norwegian companies.
18 countries in the EDA joint purchase project, without Spain
There are already eighteen countries that have joined the EDA project on joint purchases, although Spain is not currently among the signatories, according to the community agency in a statement.
The eighteen States that have already signed the project agreement for the EDA to purchase ammunition are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Norway.
“More Member States have already expressed their intention to join the initiative soon, following national procedures,” the EDA reported.
The EDA project includes a two-year expedited procedure for 155-millimeter artillery rounds and a seven-year project to procure ammunition of multiple types.
The third track of the agreement also aims to boost the European military industry in the longer term.
The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, stressed that his country is committed to the path of the EDA and the associations of groups of countries.
“We want to go both ways, because we have to take into account that perhaps everything is not going as fast as it should. The focus should be on the rapid delivery of ammunition to Ukraine this year, but it is also important that in the medium term we create the conditions for a permanent delivery both for our own stocks and for Ukraine,” he stated.