UPDATE 2-More EU defence cooperation sought as Ukraine war depletes military stocks

Avoid competition on arms purchases, top diplomat tells
members

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Only 18% of defence investment flows into cooperations –
review

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Germany to open maintenance hub in Slovakia for Ukraine
weapons

(Adds defence review)

BRUSSELS, Nov 15 (Reuters) – European Union countries
should work together in replenishing their military inventories
and avoid competing with each other amid ongoing arms deliveries
to Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat said on Tuesday.

The EU has long urged member states to join forces on arms
purchases instead of driving up prices by competing against each
other or striking deals individually with suppliers outside the
bloc. But countries have been reluctant to heed the advice.

“All together makes better prices, better quality and better
time,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters as
he arrived for a meeting of the bloc’s defence ministers.

The 27 member states are set to boost military budgets
by up to 70 billion euros ($72.2 billion) in total by 2025 but a
lack of project cooperation and the purchases outside the bloc

risk undermining efforts to create coherent forces

, the European Defence Agency (EDA) said in its annual
review for ministers.

It identified several critical gaps EU countries should
work together to fill, such as long-distance air transport,
aircraft carriers and tankers to provide fuel for war ships and
high-end air defence systems.

Only 18% of all investment in defence programmes
involves cooperation between member states, the EDA said, adding
that investing in European projects was often seen as more
time-consuming and complex.

Created in 2004, EDA’s main task is to support and
facilitate defence cooperation in Europe.

MAINTENANCE HUB

Germany said on Tuesday it would establish a maintenance
hub in Slovakia to service and repair weapons it has delivered
to Ukraine as it battles against invading Russian forces.

“We have reached agreement, and work can start
immediately so that all the equipment which has been supplied
can be repaired after coming out of battle,” Defence Minister
Christine Lambrecht told reporters in Brussels.

EU defence ministers will also discuss replenishing the
so-called European Peace Facility, which member states have
tapped to fund arms and equipment purchases for Kyiv and which
has been largely depleted over almost nine months of war in
Ukraine.

In total, the EU and its member states have provided
arms and military equipment worth at least eight billion euros
($8.27 billion) to Ukraine so far, Borrell said on Monday,
adding this was about 45% of what the United States had supplied
to Kyiv.
($1 = 0.9696 euros)
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Benoit Van Overstraeten,
editing by Gareth Jones)