The European Council reaffirmed, on Thursday 1 February, the determination of the EU and its Member States to continue to provide Ukraine with “stable, predictable and sustainable” military support.
“We are determined to make a greater effort and to ensure that Ukraine obtains the military equipment it needs to defend itself”, promised the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the end of the summit. “More (support) is coming, and more is needed - more tanks, helicopters, air defence systems, missiles, and more ammunition”, added the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen.
In addition to bilateral aid, European support will include the European Peace Facility (EPF) and the EU’s military assistance mission, the European leaders stressed in their conclusions.
In the same conclusions, they called on the EU Council to reach an agreement “by the beginning of March 2024” to amend the Facility, on the basis of the High Representative’s proposal for an aid fund for Ukraine and the main modalities proposed, taking into account the Member States’ suggestions. Speaking to the media, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, said that the EU had to “ assume a European preference”, whether in the EPF or in future instruments linked to strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base.
On his arrival, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, urged the leaders to reach an agreement “as quickly as possible”. “We must - in the coming months - increase our military support to Ukraine, just as we have increased the number of rounds, but this is still not enough. More needs to be done”, he added, regretting that there was no sense of urgency on this issue.
In a speech by videoconference to the leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also called for an agreement. “It is this kind of reliability and long-term support that we must now confront with the corresponding challenges. No less than €5 billion per year, for a period of 4 years”, he added. Although the Member States are discussing a figure of €5 billion, no agreement has yet been reached, and it is not certain that the amount will be maintained over the next few years.
While the Europeans will not meet their target of delivering one million rounds by March 2024, the European Council has reaffirmed the “urgent need” to accelerate the delivery of ammunition and missiles. The leaders called on Member States to explore all options to meet Ukraine’s needs and to accelerate efforts to this end, “including continued stock donations, redirection of existing orders and the placing of the necessary new orders, which will contribute to increasing European industry’s production capacity”.
Finally, the European Council announced that it would return to the subject of security and defence, “e, including Europe’s need to increase its overall defence readiness and further strengthen its defence technological and industrial base”, at its next meeting in March 2024, “with a view to agreeing on further steps to make the European defence industry more resilient, innovative and competitive”.
The European Commission is due to present its new strategy for the European defence industry at the end of February. “This will introduce a stronger European dimension across our defence industries. From planning to procurement, we will have greater coherence and coordination at the European Union level”, announced Ms von der Leyen, adding that the aim of the strategy is to move Europe from emergency response to defence readiness.
To see the conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/aoz (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editorial staff)