Ukraine will receive military aid from the European Union worth 5 billion euros this year. After months of negotiations, the ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven agreed yesterday on the reform of the European Peace Mechanism, the fund that has been used since the Russian invasion of Ukraine to provide weapons to Kyiv. “The EU remains determined to provide lasting support to Ukraine and ensure that the country obtains the military equipment it needs to defend itself,” celebrated the Belgian presidency of the Council, the architect of the pact. The high representative of Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, went a little further: “We will support them with whatever it takes for them to prevail” against Russia.
Until now, work had been done partially reimbursing member states for donations of national material and ammunition to the Ukrainian army, but European arsenals are no longer sufficient and the EU has decided to move to another more sustainable system, based on joint purchases. No one has questioned this principle but, in the case of France, that European money is used to reimburse purchases in third countries or, in the case of Germany, the way of calculating national contributions to the fund. Finally, for the sake of agility, in the short term the money will be allowed to be used for material acquired outside the EU and bilateral arms deliveries will also be taken into account but without nullifying the need to contribute to the European mechanism.
