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A European Union plan to
send a million artillery shells to Ukraine is being held up as
member states argue over how far spending for the plan will stay
within the EU.
Foreign ministers approved the ground-breaking package on 20 March.
The most immediate part of the plan earmarked $1.09bn to refund EU countries for sending
urgently needed artillery shells from stockpiles to Ukraine.
The legislation for that element has now been finalised and
is expected take effect in the coming days, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But a second element – a landmark EU move into joint
munitions procurement – has
been held up by disagreements over which countries’ companies
are eligible for contracts, they said.
In announcing the package, EU foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell said the munitions would come from “European industry
and from Norway”.
Draft legislation agreed by ambassadors from
EU countries, seen by the Reuters news agency, used the same formulation.
But diplomats said France – a champion of European defence
integration, with a substantial arms industry of is own – had
pushed to tighten the definition of “European industry” to
ensure as much of the funding as possible went to EU companies.
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