Agence France-Presse reports that the proposal will be discussed by EU defense ministers at an informal meeting in Stockholm.TASS, March 1.
The head of the European Union's foreign policy Service, Josep Borrel, called on the countries of the community in March to allocate € 1 billion for the supply of weapons requested by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported on Wednesday by Agence France-Presse with reference to the EU document.
According to him, the head of the department called for funds from the European Peace Fund to be allocated for the purchase of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine. This proposal will be discussed by EU defense ministers at an informal meeting on March 7 in Stockholm, the agency reports.
According to the document, Borrel proposed to provide EU countries with "a favorable cost recovery rate, up to 90%, if the ammunition is delivered before a certain date." In addition, he stressed the importance of joint purchases to continue the supply of weapons to Ukraine and pointed to the need to replenish the stocks of weapons of the EU member states.
Earlier on Wednesday, Der Spiegel magazine, citing a document at its disposal, reported that the European Commission had developed a plan that provides for an increase in the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, in particular 155 mm artillery shells, the purchase of such ammunition to replenish EU stocks and increase their production in EU countries.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the EU has already provided arms supplies to Ukraine through the European Peace Fund for €3.6 billion. At the same time, the entire volume of this fund, planned for the period from 2021 to 2027, amounted to about €5 billion, therefore, in order to maintain supplies to Ukraine at least at the level of 2022, the EU should expand this instrument in 2023.
