Germany offers to give Ukraine all the money left in the European Peace Fund account. Poland wants to fight for every euro

Germany is proposing that €6.6 billion from the European Peace Fund, which Hungary has unblocked, be transferred to Ukraine. Poland intends to fight for every euro and obtain approximately €450 million in compensation for the weapons transferred to Ukraine.

This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland Cezary Tomczyk on the air of RMF FM radio. His words are reported by RMF 24.

All countries have spent €43 billion under the fund, of which Brussels is theoretically supposed to reimburse €13.5 billion. However, this money is not in the treasury, there is only €6.6 billion. The EUʼs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has proposed distributing this money as follows:

• 10% should be allocated proportionally to reimbursement for weapons purchases;
• The remaining 90% should be allocated to support the training mission of the Ukrainian army and the purchase of weapons for Ukraine.

Poland rejects the plan, citing the need to spend on its own army. Warsaw accuses Brussels of trying to “change the rules of the game in the middle of the game”. Poland is supported by Slovakia.

Meanwhile, Germany, the largest contributor to the European Peace Fund, believes that the unblocked funds should be transferred to Ukraine, and not returned to national budgets.

The countryʼs Deputy Defense Minister Sebastian Hartmann, at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Nicosia, requested that all funds remaining in the fundʼs accounts be allocated to Ukraine.

The Scandinavian countries take a position similar to Germany. France is more in line with Kallasʼs position, as the amount of French aid under the fund was small, and therefore the amount of expected compensation will not be large either. Franceʼs only condition is that the equipment purchased with this money must be European.

• The European Peace Fund is an extra-budgetary instrument of the European Union, created to finance military and defense initiatives. After the start of Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, EU countries transfer weapons to Ukraine through the fund, and Brussels then partially reimburses the costs from the fundʼs funds.

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