On Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged EU member states to come up with a solution to jointly purchase munitions for Ukraine, following appeals from Kyiv for faster arms supplies and an idea, put forward by Estonia, of joint procurement of 155-millimetre artillery shells.
"It is now the time, really, to speed up the production, and to scale up the production of standardized products that Ukraine needs desperately," von der Leyen told the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of defence leaders and stakeholders from around the world
"We could think of, for example, advanced purchase agreements that give the defence industry the possibility to invest in production line now to be faster and to increase the amount they can deliver," the head of EU executive European Commission said.
According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, half of the EU countries have already agreed to the proposal of joint ammunition purchases.
"We are forming a coalition of countries that would be ready to produce ammunition together, e.i., to finance, co-finance the production of ammunition to the greatest extent possible," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Polish reporters in Munich.
According to Reuters, EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the idea put forward by Estonia, to jointly procure 155-millimetre ammunition used in artillery pieces such as Howitzers, at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
(ał)
Source: PAP, Reuters