The European Union will give priority to the joint purchase of ammunition, 155-mm howitzers in particular, in the first phase of the plan that the Defense Ministers of the Twenty-seven will discuss today in Stockholm in response to the SOS that the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, formulated in February to the Heads of State and Government.
This is a historic step, one more since Russia invaded Ukraine, but the agreement is close at hand, according to different European diplomatic sources, who trust that the European Council on March 23 and 24 will give the green light to the three-way strategy proposed by the European Commission in a document to which La Vanguardia has had access, with a view not only to respond to Ukraine's short-term needs, but to pave the way for a genuine European defense policy. Ukraine fires more shells per day than the European industry produces, hence the urgency to send already existing resources and give the necessary signals to the industry to invest and increase its production capacity of ammunition and heavy artillery.
In the short term, Brussels proposes to dedicate 1,000 million euros more to buy the ammunition reserves that the member states have in their national arsenals and send them to Kyiv with the utmost urgency, with a reimbursement rate of up to 90%, advantageous conditions that they are expected to encourage capitals to divest some of their reserves "immediately" and prioritize aid to Ukraine. There are no major discussions about this point of the plan, but there are about the proposal to increase the funds of the European Facility for Peace by 2,000 million euros, which since last year has invested 3,600 million euros in financing the military aid provided by member states to Ukraine. The EU is open to third countries making "voluntary financial contributions" to give this new instrument more muscle.
In parallel, the plan foresees relying on the European Defense Agency for the joint purchase of 155-mm ammunition so that it can sign the first contracts in April, with a duration of seven years. A total of 25 member states, Spain among them, as well as Norway, have expressed their desire to join this initiative. "The aggregate demand from member states and Ukraine offers the opportunity to place a massive order that will send a clear signal about demand to European industry, which would allow it to increase its production capacity," the Commission states.
The document prepared by Brussels does not contain figures, but Estonia, the country that launched the idea at the European Council in February, a meeting in which Zelenski participated, calculates that buying a million 155 mm howitzers would cost 4,000 million euros. Finally, the third track on which the EU plans to work is to take measures to increase production capacity in the medium term, with a view to reducing delivery times, through financial support measures.
"We must work on all three bands in parallel and urgently," the Commission insists in its document, which will be debated today and tomorrow by the European Defense Ministers in Stockholm. Although there are no major differences on how to act in the short term, differences persist on how to finance the instrument in the medium and long term, or on the idea of acquiring military material manufactured outside the EU with European money if it is found to be the only option.
