On March 20, member states of the European Union agreed to purchase one million ammunitions for Ukraine, but are still considering how to implement the agreement, writes Politico.
According to the publicationʼs sources, EU ambassadors met on April 5 to discuss this issue, but did not make significant progress.
Diplomats debate whether to award contracts to foreign manufacturers or leave them exclusively to European companies. France is pushing for the money to stay within the EU, according to several sources. And Greece and Cyprus support Paris because they want to avoid contracts with Turkish manufacturers.
The European Commission also needs to analyze the capacity of European companies before reaching a final deal, as there are concerns that the EU defense industry lacks the capacity to quickly produce the desired number of shells.
At the same time, EU ambassadors agreed on a plan to transfer ammunition to Ukraine that is already in storage. It is expected to be officially published next week.
According to Politico, the EU plans to implement the million munitions agreement in three stages:
The European Union will allocate one billion euros in compensation to countries that can immediately surrender ammunition (and possibly missiles) from their own military stockpiles or redirect orders.
Then he will allocate another billion euros for the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine and the replacement of shells provided by Europe. The bloc also wants to find ways to increase weapons production for years to come.
Currently, the European defense industry can produce about 25 000 shells per month.