EU heads of state and government are meeting on Thursday in Brussels for the spring summit: one of the topics of discussion is the issue of aid to Ukraine with ammunition.
This is reported by Tagesschau.
At the beginning of the summit, there will be an exchange of views with UN Secretary General António Guterres, and then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi will join them via video link.
Coordinated supplies of ammunition to Ukraine will also be a topic of the summit, but there are disputes in other areas: the German blockade of internal combustion engine shutdowns and electricity market reform.
After Russia's attack on Ukraine, not only gas prices skyrocketed, but also electricity prices. Many EU countries, especially in the south, would like to end the binding of electricity and gas prices. But the European Commission does not want to go that far.
According to the EC, long-term supply contracts are designed to keep prices stable in the long term. In addition, the European Commission wants to allow EU countries to contribute more generously to the production of cheap energy. For example, investments in "green" electricity, as well as in nuclear energy. For countries such as Portugal or Spain, this is not enough. Others, such as Germany, Finland or the Netherlands, warn of shortcomings and demand that the possible consequences of this reform be carefully studied first.
In addition, it will be about a new project on joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine and replenishment of own stocks.
Among the issues on the agenda for the next two days are the prosecution of those guilty of war crimes, the further strengthening of collective pressure on Russia, the use of frozen assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and global food security.
We will remind, on March 20, the Council of the European Union approved the plan to provide Ukraine with one million artillery ammunition for a total amount of 2 billion euros.
Its purpose, firstly, is to increase the supply of artillery ammunition for the Armed Forces; secondly, introduction of joint purchases of European states and acceleration of their pace to replenish own stocks; thirdly, the rapid expansion of production capacities of the European defense industry.
