Brussels this week will begin drafting a new plan to provide tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, after Hungary blocked a €50 billion economic package late last year.
Source. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
According to the publication, this plan provides for the allocation of 20 billion euros over the next four years through a new fund, which will be replenished by 5 billion euros a year in 2024-2027.
It is assumed that these 20 billion will be returned to EU member states as compensation for the tens of billions of euros of military aid they will provide to Ukraine over the next four years.
The publication reminds that at the beginning of the war, Europe began spending EU funds to pay for lethal military aid to Ukraine through the European Peace Fund, and 5.5 billion euros were returned to member states that provided Kyiv with weapons, ammunition, tanks and air defense missiles from their own stockpiles. But then Hungary blocked payments from the fund.
It is believed that a number of EU member states have depleted their stockpiles to the point where they can no longer provide a significant new level of assistance to Ukraine, the newspaper writes.
Given these difficulties, it is proposed to create a new special military fund for Ukraine, which will absorb part of the remaining assets of the Peace Fund and will be replenished by 5 billion euros every four years.
The idea is to use this money to compensate countries for joint supplies of aid such as ammunition, drones, and air defense missiles.
The rest of the money will be used to pay for the rising costs of the military training program. The EU document estimates that in 2024 the new fund could offer EU countries compensation worth €7.5 billion.
This would allow small EU states to pool their resources in joint procurement to help Ukraine more, the newspaper writes. The new fund, according to the authors of the plan, will make it easier for European governments to work together on what resources Kyiv needs most.
Background. As reported, Donald Tusk supported the creation of Ukrainian-Polish arms production companies.