According to the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrel, about half of this money will go to weapons for UkraineBRUSSELS, May 23.
/tass/. Most of the EU countries supported an increase in the financing of the European Peace Fund by €3.5 billion, of which about half will go to weapons for Ukraine. This was stated on Tuesday by the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrel at a press conference following a meeting of the EU Defense Council.
"Most countries supported an increase in the financing of the European Peace Fund by €3.5 billion. This way we will be able to increase the capacity of the European Peace Fund, and not only to help Ukraine. About half of this money will go to other purposes," he said.
Borrel stressed that the decision to increase funding should be taken as early as possible. "I think we won't have to wait for a new ministerial meeting [in June], we should finalize the agreement within the framework of a written procedure at the ambassadorial level in the coming weeks," he added.
According to him, the EU has already provided Ukraine with various types of assistance worth €65 billion and intends to remain a world leader in this capacity.
The total volume of the European Peace Fund for 2021-2027 was about €5.7 billion. From it, €3.5 billion has already been allocated to compensate for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, another €1 billion to compensate for emergency supplies of ammunition by EU countries and another €1 billion to place new military orders for the production of ammunition for next year.
In March, the EU decided to increase the financing of the fund by €2 billion. Thus, if Borrel's proposal to increase the fund's funding by €3.5 billion is approved, it will mean that the fund's volume has been doubled this year.