EU member states are debating setting up a dedicated ‘Ukraine Defence Fund’ to keep the country’s armed forces equipped for the next four years at a cost of up to €20 billion, EURACTIV has learnt.
According to the new proposal put forward by the EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS) on Monday, which is expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers on Thursday (20 July), the fund would come under the existing European Peace Facility (EPF).
Over the past year, the intergovernmental fund has been used to reimburse member states for their lethal and non-lethal deliveries to Ukraine and send aid to other partners in the bloc’s neighbourhood and fund missions and operations.
So far, under the EPF, the EU has allocated €5.6 billion for Ukraine. However, negotiations on the EU level have proved laborious, with top-ups to the fund often running into delays or outward opposition by Hungary.
The new proposal of a dedicated Ukraine fund would help continue to support member states to cover their own costs of purchased and donated military equipment, such as ammunition, missiles and armoured vehicles, three EU diplomats said.
It would also support financing the training of Ukrainian soldiers in the framework of the EU’s military training mission (EUMAM), which the bloc launched in November last year, they said.
The proposal, which could be adopted by autumn, could see the financial ceiling of support being increased to €20 billion for four years, the diplomats said.
The move comes as, over the past year, Europeans moved from breaking the bloc’s defence taboos, one after the other, first with the use of the European Peace Facility (EPF) to finance the reimbursement of weapons deliveries to war-torn Ukraine, then with the joint purchase of ammunition.
The ‘Ukraine Defence Fund’ would be part of the EU’s broader efforts to show its long-term sustainable commitment to Ukraine, which the EU has been trying to craft for the past year. It was floated by EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell during the EU’s leaders’ summit last month.
“You have to make Ukraine able to defend,” Borrell told reporters. “So, the European Peace Facility for Ukraine, maybe it has to become a new Ukrainian defence fund.”
“Two things are important: First, [to show to the rest of the world] that our commitment is solid, including our allies and friends – it’s a political signal that we will support Ukraine security issues for the long term as long as takes,” a senior EU official said.
“Second, and this is for both outside and inside the union, that we have to make the aid [to Ukraine] predictable,” they said.
“Obviously, our level of support to Ukraine is now so high that money allocated to the European Peace Facility for Ukraine will be so exhausted, we have to talk about the future, and the future will start very soon,” they added.
The push comes after EU leaders at their summit last month had pledged for the first time that the bloc would provide “security commitments” to Ukraine.
The EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS) to that end has drafted a drafted plan which would draw options for a series of security assurances the EU can make to Ukraine in the coming years.
