The 27 announced that they had invested 300 million euros in five cross-border projects to “support more coordinated and efficient defense acquisitions” between member countries. Ukraine will therefore benefit from a joint purchase of military equipment.
“The EU is strengthening its defense preparedness with the very first financial support for joint defense acquisitions,” the Commission said on its website this Thursday. An initiative which is divided into five projects “aimed at supporting more coordinated and efficient defense acquisitions between Member States”.
The 27 have therefore invested 300 million euros to help around twenty countries buy anti-aircraft defense equipment, armored vehicles and ammunition, most of which will go to Ukraine at war.
The EU had already financed arms purchases to help kyiv, but outside its budget, thanks to an ad hoc financial instrument.
“This is the first time that we have used the EU budget to support Member States in the joint purchase” of weapons, underlined Thursday the Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, quoted in a press release.
The EDIRPA program
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, member states have been working to strengthen their defense industry and their capacity to help kyiv.
They thus set up a financial aid mechanism aimed at promoting the purchase of ammunition, promising to deliver at least one million artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of March 2024. This objective does not has however not been achieved, but it will be before the end of the year, promised the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
This project financing was implemented under the Instrument to Strengthen the European Defense Industry through Joint Procurement (EDIRPA). This program adopted following Russia's aggression against Ukraine intends to last until 2025, to “encourage cooperation on the most urgent defense products”.
