Massive spending cuts have left France unable to find money to finance a 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) military aid package to Ukraine, Bloomberg reports.
The defence, foreign and finance ministries will be asked to redirect funds and find savings to pay for equipment ranging from missiles to artillery, sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The French government’s options are significantly constrained after it downgraded its 2024 GDP forecast on Sunday and said it needed to save 10 billion euros to meet commitments to cut the budget deficit. The government has promised costly measures to help farmers who are protesting against rising prices, cheap imports and bureaucratic delays.
France has also been criticised for its lack of transparency in providing aid to Ukraine, leading to accusations that it is not doing as much as its European and NATO partners.
The Ukrainian military is facing an acute shortage of ammunition as the military conflict reached the two-year mark this week. President Emmanuel Macron said as he announced the new package in Paris on Friday, standing alongside Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky:
“All this already represents a great deal, but we’re determined to do even more.”
Funding for the latest aid package will have to be sought without formal changes to this year’s budget, said the people, who asked not to be named while discussing confidential planning. One of the interlocutors added that the 400 million euros earmarked to fund the armed forces until 2027 does not include room for additional aid, making the task more difficult. A spokesman for the French Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Christoph Trebesch, an economist at Germany’s Kiel Institute which tracks aid to Kyiv, told Bloomberg that France needs to be more transparent in its arms transfers, though he praised recent moves to provide more information. He wrote on X:
“Big Ukraine Tracker Update: We started to track “aid allocation” (for delivery in near term), not just “commitments”. This reveals big differences in effective aid across Europe. Nordics & GER have moved far ahead in their allocated military aid (not just in their promises).”
On Friday, figures were released showing France spent 3.8 billion euros on support including SAMP-T surface-to-air missile systems, Caesar self-propelled howitzers, AMX 10 armoured vehicles and SCALP missiles.
European countries are exploring new ways to boost the continent’s defence industry and bring weapons to Ukraine, including co-borrowing – an idea backed by Macron and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
While it is likely to meet resistance from more fiscally hawkish countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, US tensions over more than $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine and the prospect of Donald Trump taking power after November’s election have given the idea fresh impetus.
Macron signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine on Friday. It followed a similar agreement earlier with Germany and a deal signed last month with Britain to provide Kyiv with long-term support.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced an additional package of anti-aircraft and artillery systems worth about 1.1 billion euros. French and German leaders have said they will not withdraw their support for Ukraine.
