EU considers revamp of €5 bln Ukraine military aid fund

EU proposes a €5 billion Ukraine military aid fund focusing on joint weapon procurement and troops training, moving away from sending weapons from existing stockpiles, Bloomberg reports.

A Bloomberg-reviewed document from the EEAS details a previously proposed plan to establish the Ukraine Assistance Fund, with an annual budget of approximately €5 billion ($5.4 billion), which member states had yet to reach a consensus on.

Under the current funding mechanism, known as the European Peace Facility (EPF), EU member states are reimbursed for weapons they send to Ukraine.

The size of the fund has been increased several times, but decisions to allocate and disburse funds require unanimous support.

The draft states that further comparable annual increases can be envisaged until 2027, based on Ukraine's needs and subject to political leadership from member states.

Diplomatic representatives of several countries, including Germany, suggested at a meeting on Wednesday that the EDF in its current form is becoming less effective. After all, most of the future supplies will be made at the expense of new arms purchases, not from existing stocks.

Other member states would like to see the aid fund integrated into the EMU, while some countries want to keep the current mechanism.

Reimbursements for supplies from warehouses and unilateral purchases will be gradually abolished.

This instrument should complement any bilateral assistance provided to Kyiv by member states.

The fund will be used to meet Ukraine's most urgent needs in artillery, specialized ammunition, drones, and air defense equipment.

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said that the bloc plans to produce 1.3 million shells by the end of this year. The priority will be to send most of them to Ukraine.

He added that EU leaders will discuss this issue at the summit on February 1. The decision to allocate money from the EU budget for the defense industry must be approved by the European Council.