European Union to accelerate deliveries of howitzer shells for Ukraine

European Union officials and countries from the 27nation bloc are discussing plans to dedicate an extra billion euros as well as setting up a joint procurement scheme to speed up the delivery of howitzer artillery rounds that Ukraine says are crucial to countering Russian forcesWith Ukraine facing shortages of ammunition to fight Russia the idea of setting up a plan of action similar to the one devised during the coronavirus pandemic to buy vaccines was first brought to the table last month by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja KallasAccording to an EU official with direct knowledge of the project who briefed reporters on Thursday the priority now is to guarantee the swift delivery to Ukrainian armed forces of 155mm artillery rounds The official was not authorized to speak publicly because the plan is still being finalizedThe EU has been helping Ukraine through its European Peace Facility a fund being used to reimburse member countries that provide weapons ammunition and military support to UkraineUnder the latest proposal member countries providing ammunition immediately would be guaranteed to be repaid quickly and at high rates of reimbursement To fund the project member states would need to use an additional billion euros after they already agreed in December to top up the European Peace Facility by a further 2 billion euros with a possibility of an additional 35 billionAlso read Russian forces intensify assault on Ukrainersquos BakhmutThe EU will also encourage third countries to join the fund the official said Were in discussions with the Norwegians with potential interest from the CanadiansIn parallel the European Defence Agency would aggregate demands from member states to restock and lead a fasttrack procedure for direct negotiations with industrial providers of ammunition in EuropeAccording to the official a total of 12 companies in nine member states are producing 155mm ammunition The European Commission the EUs executive arm will incentivize them to ramp up production with guarantees of longterm demand making the project interesting for them the official saidAccording to various estimates Ukraine is firing 60007000 artillery shells daily around a third of Russias total one year into the war The plan will be discussed by EU defense ministers next week before foreign and defense ministers further look at it during a meeting on March 20 Leaders could then rubberstamp it during a summit in Brussels on March 2324This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever