“We have to have a war mentality”

“We are in times of war and we have to have a war mentality“warns the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell. The defense ministers of the Twenty-seven reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday, during an informal meeting in Stockholm, to mobilize up to 2,000 million euros from the community budget in order to speed up the shipment of artillery ammunition to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikovwho has also participated in the meeting, has conveyed to his European colleagues that his country needs between 90,000 and 100,000 shells a month “in order to deter the enemy and advance a counteroffensive campaign” against Russia. “In times of war, time is of the essence and it saves lives. That is why we must move as soon as possible,” Reznikov claimed.

For his part, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberghas warned that the besieged city of Bakhmut could fall “in the next few days”. Stoltenberg argues that this “does not necessarily mark a turning point in the war”, but only emphasizes that “we must not underestimate Russia”. “We must continue to provide support to Ukraine,” holds stoltenberg.

[La UE quiere que su industria armamentística pase a un modo de “economía de guerra”]

At the Stockholm meeting, the EU Defense Ministers reached a “general agreement” on Borrell’s plan to speed up the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine. However, the head of community diplomacy himself has admitted that there are still “pending issues”, so the definitive decision will not be adopted until the next joint meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the March 20.

Borrell’s plan is based on three “complementary” pillars. Firstly, the EU will approve new tranche of 1,000 million Euros from its Peace Support Fund to pay for “immediate” deliveries to kyiv of ammunition from Member States’ reserves. “Of any type, NATO standard or Soviet standard, 155mm or 152mm,” the High Representative said.

The second pillar consists of launching a joint purchase of artillery ammunition, which would be carried out centrally through the European Defense Agency. It would try to make a massive order in order to send the industry a clear demand signalwhich would allow it to increase its production capacity in a lasting and sustainable way throughout Europe.

For this second pillar, Borrell proposes allocating another tranche of 1,000 million euros from the Peace Support Fund. The head of European diplomacy has avoided specifying the calendar on which this ammunition would be available. He has limited himself to pointing out that the Defense Agency can use an “accelerated procedure” and that the joint purchase will help to “reduce not only prices but also delivery times.”

[El Grupo Wagner dice que ya controla todo el este de Bakhmut y Zelenski teme que caigan más ciudades]

The third pillar consists of expanding the production capacity of the European industry, using community funds with a model similar to advance purchase contracts that were used with the vaccine against Covid-19.

“It is absolutely mandatory to go to a war economy mode in defense industry. We must do whatever is necessary to supply Ukraine, especially ammunition,” said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

Breton has asked the financial sector to increase its support for the defense industry, starting with the European Investment Bank. And he has announced that he will start a tour of all the military industry plants in Europe to ensure that “everyone is well aligned towards these objectives in the coming weeks and months.”

For his part, Borrell has insisted that it should be the European industry (and not that of other non-EU countries) that benefits from EU aid. “It is clear that we prefer the European industry to produce the ammunition we need. Because we need a European defense industry,” she said.

“We need the capacity to produce ourselves and now we don’t have enough capacity because we were used to living in peace and war was not something that was in our imagination,” argues the High Representative. “So priority to European industry. And some Member States have made it very clear that European money must be used to create jobs in the European defense industry“, he insisted.

Some Member States, such as the Baltics, consider that Borrell’s plan is insufficient to meet the needs of Ukraine. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has insisted on his proposal to provide Kiev with up to one million shells, at an estimated cost of 4,000 million euros. An initiative to which Reznikov has reiterated his support.

For this, “new money” from the EU would be needed, since the Peace Support Fund will completely exhaust its resources with the 2,000 million announced by Borrell. “It is up to the Commission and Borrell to find the right solution,” Pevkur said.

“money does not come from heaven. It is not because a Member State says that we need more money that money will appear by miracle. We have the resources we have, and the first thing we must do is use what we have. If the Member States are willing to provide more, I will be delighted,” Borrell replied, calling on all governments to be “realistic and pragmatic.”