The EU foreign ministers agreed, on Monday 18 July, on further EU military assistance under the European Peace Facility for an amount of €500 million. It is expected to be formally adopted in the coming days, once the national procedures of some countries have been completed.
“Ukraine needs more arms, we will provide them”, announced the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, at the end of the Foreign Affairs Council, adding that the ministers had agreed to his proposal for a new aid tranche of €500 million from the European Peace Facility. With this new aid, the EU will have spent €2.5 billion on Ukraine since the beginning of the war, while the Facility has just under €5.7 billion (see EUROPE 12991/7).
Asked about the risk of a shortage of funds, the High Representative said the Facility was not infinite and resources were limited, but “for the time being, we can continue to finance the Ukrainian war effort”. “There is no shortage of funds at the moment”, he added.
“If anything needs to be continued, it is weapons delivery”, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said earlier in the day, adding that it was thanks to the provision of Western aid that Ukraine had, for example, retaken Snake Island.
Asked about the EU’s macro-financial assistance – of the 9 billion promised, only 1 billion has been agreed – Mr Borrell explained that the EU is still working on the remaining 8 billion. “We will do it”, he promised. “We are aware of the macroeconomic problems facing Ukraine. Macro-financial assistance is as important as military assistance”, the High Representative said.
Mr Borrell also explained that the EU would continue to support Ukraine in its European reform agenda and that an Association Council with Ukraine would be held on 5 September.
Work on new sanctions
The ministers also discussed the new sanctions against Russia. “We must stick to the sanctions, continue to put pressure on the Russian economy”, Mr Borrell said. “It’s not a quick fix, but we have to do it at the same level as we do it on the military one”, he said.
The new measures are expected to cover Russian gold exports, closing loopholes for those who circumvent the sanctions already adopted and new individual sanctions.
According to the Portuguese Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho, if the G7 only sanctions gold, ministers would agree to include jewellery. “There is no reason to exclude jewellery from the scope of the sanctions”, he explained. A European diplomat was more moderate, explaining that gold was contained in the jewellery and that it was necessary to study whether to include it or not. He said that several ministers had mentioned the inclusion of jewellery in the sanctions and that there had been no opposition, but that the subject had not been discussed as such. At the time of going to press, Member States’ ambassadors to the EU were working on the adoption of these new measures.
By video conference, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, had asked his counterparts to go further and adopt an energy embargo, an oil price cap and a ban on all Russian TV channels.
Asked about the effectiveness of the measures, Mr Borrell called for a look at the figures. “Our sanctions are hitting the Kremlin hard and their effects on the Russian economy will increase further. It certainly won’t stop the war overnight, but it creates a lot of economic problems”, he said.
In addition, the Czech minister, Jan Lipavský, recalled his intention to discuss a new EU policy towards Russia during the Gymnich on 30-31 August in Prague, saying that there was a need to “reflect the new reality of hostility”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)