Manfred Weber, head of the European People's Party (EPP), which is the largest group in the European Parliament, wants the legislature to vote on ramping up production of arms and ammunition to aid Ukraine under an accelerated procedure as early as this month.
Weber wrote about this in a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Robert Metsol - the document came into the possession of Politico, "European Truth" reports.
"Given the urgent need to help Ukraine replenish its stockpiles of ammunition, the EPP group would like to request an urgent procedure under Rule 163 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament," Weber wrote in his May 5 letter.
The EU has promised to supply Ukraine with 1 million shells within a year, but there are fears that it may not fulfill its promise and will not produce the necessary amount of ammunition on the continent.
In March, the ministers of the European Union appealed to Brussels with a request to develop a law on the use of the budget of the European Union to build up defense production capacities in the EU to achieve the set goals.
Last week, the European Commission approved plans to increase the European Union's munitions production capacity by injecting €500 million from the EU budget into European ammunition factories to boost weapons production - subject to co-financing of around €500 million from EU member states and other sources.
The bill, dubbed the Ammunition Support Act (ASAP), aims to produce 1 million rounds of ammunition in one year.
But European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton did not speed up the consideration of the bill in order to bypass the lengthy procedures of the parliamentary committees, hoping that the members of the European Parliament themselves would decide to speed up the consideration.
Members of the European Parliament will discuss the European Commission's proposal at a plenary session on Monday. They will talk about whether it is worth speeding up the consideration of the draft law. Weber wants deputies to vote on Tuesday to use the expedited review procedure.
Weber suggests that a final vote on the bill be scheduled for a session later this month.
It will be recalled that last week the EU countries also reached an agreement on approaches to the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine for one billion euros.
