"The majority of Member States" is willing to approve an additional financing of the European Peace Facility for 3.5 billion euros but the formal agreement is not yet there and we will have to wait for the next meetings of the committees of permanent representatives to the European institutions for the final ok. This was stated by the High Representative of EU foreign policy Josep Borrell at the end of the Defense Council. The next tranche, according to the current proposal, will reserve one billion euros for Ukraine and 2.5 billion euros for the rest of the world.
Borrell recalled that thanks to the European Peace Facility, 10 billion in military aid to Ukraine has been mobilized compared to the 3.5 billion in requests for reimbursements received: "it is much more than we expected".
Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he was "very disappointed" and "irritated" by Hungary's veto on the disbursement of the new €500 million tranche of reimbursements for arms supplied to Kiev under the European Peace Facility (EPF). "It's not a good move," the minister said, stressing that the EPF is a "very effective tool" that "provides fundamental incentives." "About one euro in four of the EPF comes from Germany," he added.
The EU Council approved conclusions on cyber defence stressing the need for the EU and member states to further strengthen their capacity to deal with cyber threats and increase common cyber security and cyber defence against malicious behaviour and acts of aggression in cyberspace.