(Brussels Comprehensive) EU Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister are expected to reach an agreement on Monday (March 20) to agree to allocate 1 billion euros (about S $ 1.4 billion) from European Peace Fund1 million fire shells to Ukraine.
According to people familiar with the matter, the EU Foreign Minister and Defense Director who met in Brussels will also agree to allocate another 1 billion euros from the same fund to compensate the cost of providing ammunition to Ukraine from the existing inventory.
Inspectors say that the co -orders in Europe can be implemented by purchasing projects led by the European Defense Administration, or by individual EU countries into their contracts.
However, the European Union still has several technical problems to be resolved, including how many Ukraine's urgent 155mm artillery shells are needed for the current inventory of EU members, whether the procurement should be opened to non -EU suppliers.
In addition, a number of European officials and arms dealers told the Financial Times that due to the lack of gunpowder, Plastic Explosives and TNT, the EU would be difficult to increase production even if they invested more.
A German official said: "The fundamental problem is that the European defense industry is not suitable for large -scale production weapons."
Europe is trying to meet the needs of Kiev by injecting capital into the national defense field, especially the production of 155mm artillery shells.However, manufacturers, national defense industry executives and EU officials warned that increased demand may only increase the price of one -fifth of the past year.
The Chairman of the Czech Republic Defense and Safety Industry Association Hennik said: "The production of artillery and ammunition, especially heavy large -caliber ammunition, is difficult to increase in a short time ... It is easy to build a new military reserve manufacturer, but there is no raw material.What about more artillery shells? "
National Defense Industry officials said that European gunpowder, TNT and Nitrocellulose are limited, and these are necessary materials for production of shells.
Henick said, "If I want to increase the yield of gunpowder, I might take three years."
