EU develops new plan to increase military aid to Ukraine
The new $22 billion plan is aimed at joint military procurement for Ukraine.
According to Censor.NET, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The publication notes that this week the European Union is starting to work on a new plan to provide tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, trying to update a critical aid programme as there are countries blocking €50 billion in aid.
The EU's move comes after a number of European countries increased bilateral military aid to Ukraine as the US Congress still fails to pass a bill to help Kyiv.
"Given Ukraine's dependence on external support, the choices made by EU member states and partners in the coming period will either allow Ukraine to make decisive progress or seriously undermine its ability to resist," the proposal says.
If the new EU plan is successful, more than €20 billion in EU funds will be returned to countries over the next four years in exchange for their assistance to Ukraine. The plan follows weeks of debate between the EU and its member states.
Faced with the difficulties, the EU is proposing to create a specialised military fund for Ukraine, which would absorb about €6.5 billion of the European Peace Fund's assets and receive up to €5 billion a year between 2024 and 2027.
The idea is to use this money to jointly purchase ammunition, drones and air defence missiles for Ukraine by several member states.
The rest of the money will be used to pay for the rising costs of the EU's military training programme for Ukraine, which has already trained 40,000 fighters. There will be a transition period before the new plan comes into force.
The EU document provides a rough estimate that this year it can offer member states compensation for military aid in the amount of 7.5 billion euros.
The EU proposal comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose government is doubling bilateral military aid to Ukraine this year despite tight budget constraints, called on other EU countries to do more to help Kyiv militarily. He called for an audit of EU military aid, which is currently underway.
For Germany and some other countries, bilateral assistance to Ukraine can be offset by their contributions to the Ukrainian fund.
EU officials said that member states will start formal discussions on the plan in the coming days, and the proposal is likely to be discussed by EU leaders at their summit on 1 February. However, any final decision is likely to take several weeks.
In June, Borrell proposed the creation of a specialised section in the European Peace Fund to provide up to €5 billion a year for the next four years for Ukraine's defence needs.
