To address Kyiv’s critical ammunition shortage, the EU is coughing up a whopping €3 billion. Through various schemes, within 12 months, Ukraine is to receive an estimated 1 million artillery shells for its war efforts.
In a Wednesday, May 3rd press release, the European Commission announced it would free up €500 million for the production of ammunition, which would allow member states to dip into various European funds to incentivise arms firms to increase production. According to the press release:
Today, the Commission has adopted the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) as a response to track 3 of the plan agreed by the Council on 20 March, to urgently deliver ammunition and missiles to Ukraine and to help Member States refill their stocks. By introducing targeted measures including financing, the Act aims at ramping up the EU’s production capacity and addressing the current shortage of ammunition and missiles as well as their components. It will support the destocking from Member States (track 1) and the joint procurement for ammunition (track 2).
The EU’s latest scheme, known as the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), must however still pass approval by the European Parliament and member states.
When added to previous arrangements, the EU would in total be putting €3 billion on the table, allowing Europe’s defense industry to “switch to war economy mode,” remarked Thierry Breton, commissioner for the EU’s internal market, the day before the official announcement.
Breton, who for weeks traveled across Europe to inspect munitions factories, said he hoped to see that approval through before summer asap—a wish expressed by the acronym (which also stands for ‘as soon as possible’).
Ukraine’s lack of ammunition—the supply of 155-millimeter artillery shells in particular has been running dangerously low—has been a headache for its European backers since the war started in February 2022.
Only last winter, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine burned through shells faster than the West could produce them.
Due to a lack of demand since the Cold War’s end, Europe’s defense industry had contracted over the years, which Breton observed during his tour:
“I have visited the EU’s main ammunition production sites on the ground,” he was quoted in the press release, adding that while “Europe has a substantial, diversified defense production capacity, it does not have the scale today to meet the security needs of Ukraine and our Member States, but it certainly has the potential to do so.”
Currently, only 11 EU member states produce shells.
In March this year, as Kyiv’s ammo problem intensified, the EU launched a three-step plan to address the shortage.
€1 billion had been set aside so that member states could promptly send shells from their own stockpiles to Kyiv while billing Brussels for their trouble.
Another €1 billion had been set aside for the joint purchase of shells. While Brussels argued over whether solely European manufacturers should be procured, or also foreign ones (in order to accelerate delivery time), Wednesday’s compromise proved in favor of the former.
The plan’s third part intends to increase production capacity in Europe in the medium term. Through the promise of joint procurement and increased production, in the short term, member states are encouraged to dig into their own stockpiles, knowing these would soon be replenished.
