The European Union’s plan to allocate 20 billion euros ($21.4 billion) in military aid to Ukraine may fail as EU members voice concerns, according to Reuters.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, proposed in July that a fund of up to 5 billion euros a year for four years be set up as part of a wider Western commitment to support Ukraine.
However, diplomats reported that many EU countries had expressed doubts about allocating such large sums several years earlier.
According to the bloc’s diplomatic service, the EU and its members have been among the biggest donors of military aid to Ukraine since the war broke out in February 2022, providing some 25 billion euros worth of arms and equipment.
Borrell’s proposal was an attempt to put the support on a longer-term basis by creating a money bank to help Ukraine as part of a larger fund, the European Peace Facility, which has been used to reimburse EU members for military aid to other countries.
I’m not going to declare it dead at this point yet. But of course, improvements can always be made. Germany has had a lot of questions … and rightfully so. We’re talking about a lot of money.
The debate over military aid is heating up at a time when EU countries are also discussing a proposal to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros in economic aid.
Hungary has been delaying 500 million euros in Peace Fund payments to EU members for aid to Ukraine for months because Ukraine blacklisted the Hungarian bank OTP. Since the bank has been removed from the blacklist, Hungary insists it needs guarantees.
An EU diplomat claimed that the probability of Borrell’s original proposal being accepted is decreasing, but many countries still want EU-level commitments. The diplomatic service believes the EU may eventually decide to honour its commitments year after year, rather than signing up for a larger sum spread over four years.
