By Andrew Gray
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to 20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years.
The proposal, by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, is part of an effort to put the bloc’s support for Kyiv on a longer-term footing, after more than a year of scrambling to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs following Russia’s invasion.
The move would also be part of an international drive to give Ukraine long-term security assurances, as announced by G7 nations on the sidelines of last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.
Borrell has suggested adding up to 5 billion euros a year for Ukraine into an EU-run fund named the European Peace Facility, according to EU officials and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity as the proposal has not been published.
The fund has already allocated more than 5 billion euros in support for Ukraine since February last year. The proposed extra funding would cover the period from 2024 to 2027 inclusive.
An EU official said the aim was to provide more military aid to Ukraine “on a more predictable and sustainable basis”.
Borrell raised the prospect of a new cash pot for Kyiv last month and said it could be called the Ukraine Defence Fund.
“Ukraine needs our commitment to continue ensuring their security during the war and after the war,” he said then.
The Peace Facility is used to reimburse EU countries for at least part of the cost of weapons, ammunition and other military aid they give to nations outside the bloc.
The EU’s decision last year to bankroll arms supplies to a country at war was a landmark moment for the 27-member bloc, which for decades concentrated on economic and political cooperation and avoided involvement in armed conflicts.
Borrell’s proposal is among several items on the agenda of Thursday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, whose governments would have to provide the money for the big funding boost.
Ministers are expected to have only an initial discussion on Thursday and then return to the issue in more depth at a meeting in Spain at the end of August, officials and diplomats said.
Diplomats said they expect EU governments to consider the plan alongside a proposal from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, to provide 50 billion euros in economic aid to Ukraine over the same four-year period.
($1 = 0.8929 euros)
(Reporting by Andrew Gray and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
