The European defence ministers will meet in Brussels on Tuesday 20 May to discuss Member States’ support for Ukraine and the implementation of the White Paper for European Defence presented by the European Commission in March.
After a brief remote intervention by the Ukrainian Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, and an informal exchange with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the ministers will discuss support for Ukraine.
They will discuss the High Representative for the Union, Kaja Kallas’ initiative to send 2 million munitions to Ukraine in 2025 on the basis of contributions from Member States. A third of the ammunition has not yet been pledged, although the €5 billion required has been found, because the €5 billion for 2 million rounds of ammunition is based on estimates that are too low given the price of the large-calibre shells that Ukraine wants.
“We are confident that there will be further announcements throughout the year”, said a senior European official in an optimistic tone on Monday 19 May.
The ministers could also discuss the security guarantees that the EU could provide to support the work of the countries forming part of the Coalition of the Willing, in particular with its EUMAM military assistance and EUAM advisory missions to the internal security forces. Several Member States want to see the mandate of these missions strengthened.
According to a senior European official, this would involve discussing ways of adapting EUMAM in a comprehensive way to equip, advise and train according to Ukraine’s needs, and to enable EUAM to provide greater assistance to Ukraine in the fight against threats and hybrid attacks and to protect critical infrastructures.
Cooperation between the European and Ukrainian defence industries is also expected to be addressed. The EU has already allocated €3.3 billion, resulting from windfall profits from frozen assets, to support the Ukrainian defence industry (see EUROPE 13638/18).
At lunch, the EU Council will discuss the state of preparedness of defence, in particular the implementation of the White Paper on European Defence (see EUROPE 13603/7). The financing of the latter, in particular the relaxation of the rules to allow banks to lend to the defence industry or SAFE - which could be the subject of an agreement between the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday 21 May and an agreement at the General Affairs Council of the EU on 27 May - will be debated. Legislation simplification - with the expected presentation on 17 June of an ‘omnibus’ on defence - could also be addressed.
The ministers will focus as well on the nine priority capability areas, as well as on how to implement them in concrete, collaborative projects. Member States will be invited to express their interest in collaborating in various capability areas.
Kaja Kallas is also expected to announce that the EU Rapid Deployment Capacity is operational, as originally planned in the ‘Strategic Compass’ (see EUROPE 12899/16).
At the end of the EU Council, the ministers will meet within the Steering Board of the European Defence Agency (EDA). They will provide further guidance to the EDA on medium and long-term action lines for the development of European capabilities and discuss the possibility of signing additional letters of intent for new joint capability projects. This is the first EDA Ministerial Steering Board to be chaired by Kaja Kallas as Director of the Agency, and with André Denk as the new Director General of the EDA. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)