The delivery one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine remains a political goal for the EU – Borrell 

The delivery of one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, which the EU committed to in March, remains an ambitious political goal, and the EU will appeal to its member states to accelerate defence production and increase volumes of ammunition supplies to Ukraine, announced High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell at a press conference today in Brussels, as reported by a correspondent of Ukrinform.

“On the issue of ammunition, implementation is ongoing, this is a continuous flow. Remember that we were based on these three tracks with the Member States. The objective of one million rounds of ammunition remains the political goal that we fixed together with the Member States. It is ambitious, but it remains our goal – and we will continue pushing for it, doing everything, every day, in order to deliver quicker and more ammunition,” stated Josep Borrell.

He reminded that from the first track, EU member states reached 30% of the overall objective and more than 300,000 shells had already been delivered. This came from stocks or from rerouting or reprioritisation of orders, because the European industry exports a lot to third countries. So, he asked Member States to reroute, to change the priority in order to give priority to the production for Ukraine.  

The same can be said about the destocking. Stocks have been provided but de-stocking will continue, because the stocks are not a fixed quantity. Therefore, member states need to consider the possibility of using their own stocks in this sense, said Borrell.

“With the joint procurement that we have organised from the European Defence Agency and from the lead nations, in particular France and Germany, based on the last data – but the last data is from some days ago and tomorrow there will be a different one – at least 180,000 rounds have been placed as orders to the industry. Remember that the second track is ordering to the industry through joint procurement. 180,000 rounds have been put in order to be delivered in 2023 and 2024. But I insist that all of that is work in progress and the figures will continue increasing. There is room for more orders,” stated Borrell.  

The industry, according to the European Commission, has the capacity. By March, it will have the capacity of producing 1 million rounds – but an important part of it is being exported to third countries and it has to be re-routed and re-prioritised, according to Borrell.

“According to Commissioner Breton, the European industry has the capacity to produce 1 million shots a year. It does not mean that we will already have 1 million shots ready by March. So, maybe we will not have 1 million rounds ready by March, but it will depend on how quickly the orders come to the industry, and how quickly the industry reacts. Both things could be true at the same time. The capacity of the industry, and the deliveries to the industry and from the industry to us, and from us to Ukraine. So, maybe by March we will not have 1 million shots, but if the industry has the capacity to produce, it is up to the Member States to pass the orders in order to ask for this production to be developed. So, we are talking about different stages of this process,” said Borrell.

Borrell noted that the European defence industry has to receive a clear horizon in order to increase its capacity. “They need predictability on what we expect from them,” he said. In this context, the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) is already perceived by the industry as a positive contribution to the increase of European production capacity. 

“Together with Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, we will continue pushing for it. And remember that, in the medium term, we are presenting a European Defence Industrial Strategy early next year,” added Borrell. As it was earlier reported, EU Foreign Affairs Council (Defence) met in Brussels today. One of the key issues European ministers discussed was continuing and increasing military assistance to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

ukrinform.ua