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Borrell proposes a more attractive financing plan for partners to send ammunition to Ukraine

2023-02-22T16:26:51.409Z


The EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy urges Member States to quickly send the ammunition available in their stores


Brussels urges the Twenty-seven to speed up the shipment of ammunition to Ukraine.

And it offers a more attractive financing plan as an incentive.

The high community representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, urges the Member States of the European Union to send ammunition to Ukraine as soon as possible: "Time is of the essence", he stresses in the letter he has sent to the defense ministers this Tuesday to which EL PAÍS has had access.

And so that they even use the ammunition stored in their warehouses, Borrell announces that he is preparing "formulas to encourage these shipments, for example through more attractive reimbursement plans."

"I will present concrete proposals next week," he says.

Ukraine's arsenals have emptied considerably since Russia began the invasion nearly a year ago.

NATO countries, most of which are also members of the EU, are supplying it with arms and ammunition.

But the war consumes a lot of material and, in addition, the invader is firing a lot: 50,000 projectiles a day, according to the high representative.

kyiv would need the same capacity to be able to face the great offensive that it is feared that Moscow will order at this time.

Hence, from Washington and from Brussels, all the allies are urged to supply projectiles as soon as possible.

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“I am writing to you about this to get your attention and ask you to urgently expedite the shipment of ammunition available in your depots or orders you have already placed.

Our immediate priority is to send [ammunition] to Ukraine.

Time is of the essence”, urges the Spaniard.

To make these shipments more attractive, Brussels is preparing new ways to pay for the shipment of war material to Ukraine.

It has already done so with seven financing packages that have amounted to 3,600 million.

With them, what the European Union has done is pay what is sent to the Member States that have sent arms and ammunition.

Now it would be about making it even more attractive.

“I am well aware that for Member States to comply now, they would need guarantees that more ammunition will soon be on the market.

Therefore, in parallel, the European Union is also looking into the issue of joint procurement and how to increase the production capacity of the European defense industry.

Our Estonian colleagues have already put ideas on the table and my services are also working on developing concrete proposals," the letter continues.

Josep Borrell, this Tuesday in Brussels.

JOHANNA GERON (REUTERS)

Borrell already hurried the EU foreign ministers this Monday at the meeting they held in Brussels.

The following day, at the NATO headquarters, after the meeting he had with the same ministers and with the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, plus the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, he announced the sending of the letter.

As he explained, his intention is to draw up a catalog of proposals for the informal meeting of those responsible for the Defense of the Twenty-seven on March 7 and 8 in Stockholm, which not only include very short-term measures —the sending of ammunition available as soon as possible and within “weeks”—in which he has been insisting for several days, but also,

This framework includes both the possibility, according to Borrell, which is simpler and more direct, of making use of the European Peace Facility —which, as he recalled, has already been serving for a year to provide ammunition to Ukraine and "has much more flexibility than the European budget , because it is a kind of intergovernmental club where countries can among themselves decide to increase the budget without any complex type of procedure” such as that required by an intra-community decision—such as the Estonian proposal to create a joint purchasing platform inspired by the purchase of vaccines against covid during the pandemic.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-02-22

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