UPDATE 3-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 more Borrell, UK set to join EU project)
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 at a
meeting of the bloc’s defence ministers in Brussels.
He said ministers agreed that the European defence industry
“needs to ramp up production rapidly” to replenish stocks which
have been passed on to Ukraine, while acknowledging that stable
demand will have to create the basis for increasing production.
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 warships and high-end
air defence systems.
Only 18% of all investment in defence programmes involves
cooperation between member states, the EDA stated, adding that
investing in European projects was often seen as more
time-consuming and complex.
“It’s still too low… we need to reach a target of 35% (of
cooperation),” said Borrell.
EU defence ministers also discussed 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.
Borrell did not give a figure of how much money will be
needed to refill the pot but said he hoped for a solution before
the end of year.
In total, the EU and its member states have provided arms
and military equipment worth at least 8 billion euros to Ukraine
so far, Borrell said on Monday.
Ministers also paved the way for Britain to join an EU
project aimed at facilitating the swift movement of troops and
military equipment across Europe.
($1 = 0.9696 euro)
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Clement
Rossignol and Tassilo Hummel; editing by Gareth Jones and
Jonathan Oatis)