EU wants to increase ammunition production

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This is good news for Ukraine, but also strengthens European defense capabilities, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting with new Czech President Petr Pavel in Prague on Tuesday evening. Everything is currently “about speed, speed, speed”.

Von der Leyen announced that a bill on the ammunition plan will be presented to the College of EU Commissioners on Wednesday. Among other things, it should ensure that regulations are simplified and approval procedures are speeded up. According to the Commission’s proposal, EUR 500 million of EU money should be made available to finance the expansion of ammunition production. According to the plans, an additional EUR 500 million would be co-financed by the Member States.

The background to the plans includes the EU’s pledge in March to provide Ukraine with a million new artillery shells within twelve months to fight the aggressor Russia. These are intended to prevent bottlenecks in the Ukrainian armed forces and to launch new offensives against the attackers from Russia.

EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton said of the new financing project that he was confident that production capacity in Europe could be increased to one million rounds per year within 12 months. The industrial base for munitions production in Europe is in place and has the potential to meet the needs of Ukraine and member states, he said at the planned presentation of the plans next Wednesday.

But the industrial base now needs to be revitalized to adapt to the needs of an intense conflict. “When it comes to defense, our industry must now switch to war economics,” Breton said.

(SDA)

Source: Blick