At a meeting of the Political and Security Committee this week, most EU countries were in favour of allowing EU money to be used to buy non-EU-made shells as an emergency measure to help Ukraine, but France, Greece and Cyprus opposed, Politico reports.
These countries are in favour of European arms manufacturers increasing their own production. At the same time, a senior French official said last month that Paris would authorise purchases of weapons produced outside the EU if the countries failed to deliver 1m shells to Ukraine by March.
It’s time for the EU to subsidise countries’ defence spending, Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission president, told the FT in an interview. She noted:
“We have to spend more, we have to spend better, we have to spend European. We have a very fragmented defence market and that needs to change. What is the competence of the Commission? It’s industry. This is our core business. We are an enabler, not a buyer.”
Ursula von der Leyen said on 1 February that the EU would deliver only 500,000 shells by March. According to her, the EU has increased military production by 40 per cent. However, the ammunition plan could not be fulfilled due to production delays and concerns about depletion of EU stocks.
