MEPs voted on Tuesday 9 May, by 518 votes to 59 with 31 abstentions, to trigger the urgency procedure in order to proceed rapidly with the examination of the legislative proposal on the ‘Act in Support of Ammunition Production’ (ASAP) (see EUROPE 13174/1), under Article 163.
The vote, requested by the EPP and Renew Europe groups, was supported by the S&D and the Greens/EFA.
The European Parliament negotiating mandate on ASAP will be put to the vote at the European Parliament’s mini-plenary on 31 May and 1 June.
During the plenary debate on Monday 8 May, Zdzisław Krasnodębski (ECR, Polish), while supporting the urgency procedure, had wanted the vote on the mandate to be held at the June plenary session. In his view, it is necessary to have time to reflect on this proposal which could have an impact on the industry in the long term.
Ahead of the vote, the chair of the committee responsible, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), Cristian Bușoi (EPP, Romanian), encouraged the EU Council to work quickly, so that an inter-institutional political agreement could be voted in plenary in July.
The European Commission wants an agreement between the European Parliament and the EU Council by the end of June. “The reality on the ground in Ukraine calls on us to be ambitious and to take all possible steps to move quickly while respecting our democracy”, said European Commissioner Thierry Breton during the debate.
While most MEPs supported the substance of the Commission’s proposal, there was one point of debate. MEPs were concerned: - €500 million for ASAP from the European Defence Fund and the instrument to strengthen the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA); - the possibility for states to use Cohesion Funds or the Recovery and Resilience Facility to complement ASAP funds.
“The willingness to invest in defence must be translated into additional funds, new money”, stressed Christian Ehler (EPP, German). Similarly, for Sven Mikser (S&D, Estonian), this proposal should be financed in a “responsible and sustainable” way. He warned that both meeting production demand and common markets must be addressed, but “it will be difficult to achieve these goals by trying to create the illusion that you can use the same money twice”.
Saying that the defence sector was making a profit, Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA, German) proposed that the sector should use its own money or that the EU should ensure that the European taxpayer gets a return on investment, “by coupling this ASAP regulation with a tax on excessive profits on the defence sector”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)