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A Ukrainian soldier carries a 155 mm grenade to a self-propelled howitzer near Bakhmut.
Image: dpa
The member states buy weapons and ammunition outside the EU for 80 percent of their arms budget. This quota should be reduced to half. However, the Commission only has 1.5 billion euros available for this.
Dhe EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave two figures on Tuesday to illustrate the challenge facing the European defense industry. In 2022, the Pentagon bought weapons and ammunition for 215 billion euros, while the 27 EU states together only came to 58 billion euros. The smaller part of this money went to European defense companies, which are spread across a few larger member states. Almost as much benefited American producers. That should change in the future. The member states should invest “more, better, together and in a European way” – this mantra was often heard when the EU Commission presented its strategy for the European defense industry.
The strategy goes hand in hand with a program that the member states and the EU Parliament must decide together. And even if all actors tried to present their initiative as a major achievement, its scope is still modest: the Commission wants to spend just 1.5 billion euros on it between 2025 and 2027. More money is not available in medium-term financial planning.
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Czech President Petr Pavel receives France’s Head of State Emmanuel Macron in Prague on March 5, 2024.
Image: Reuters
Europe should not be cowardly, says the French President in Prague. Federal Defense Minister Pistorius finds Macron’s words “not helpful”. However, the Élysée Palace says Berlin was not meant.
DDuring a visit to Prague, French President Emmanuel Macron called for people not to “cowardly” close their minds to the challenges of the war in Ukraine. In a speech at the French embassy on Tuesday, he first spoke of the Iron Curtain and “the cowardice” of one part of Europe in “as it were” leaving the fate of the other part to totalitarianism. The war has now returned to European soil. “We are certainly facing a moment in our Europe when it will be important not to be cowardly,” he said.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) interpreted this as a reference to the federal government and described Macron’s words as unhelpful. “This doesn’t really help solve the problems we have in supporting Ukraine as best we can,” Pistorius said in Stockholm. “In my view, we don’t need discussions regarding the use of ground troops or regarding more or less courage,” said Pistorius.
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Intimidation intensifies once morest the Government of Moldova, in a year in which the citizens of this former Soviet republic are called in the fall to re-elect the pro-European Maia Sandu as president or return to their most recent past with a candidate submissive to the recurrences of the Kremlin. Just two days following the secessionist region of Transnistria demanded protection from Russia in the face of “growing pressure” from the Moldovan Executive to impose customs fees, another autonomous territory within the borders of this Eastern European country joined the request for the pro-Russian separatists. Eugenia Gutul, governor of Gagaúzia — a small territorial entity of regarding 140,000 inhabitants that received autonomous status in 1994 to avoid another armed conflict as happened two years earlier with the rebel enclave — also denounced this Friday in Moscow “pressure” from from Chisinau, capital of Moldova, and asked for help during a meeting with the president of the Russian Federation Council (Upper House), Valentina Matvienko.
“The central authorities violate the rights of the Gagaúzos, all limits have already been exceeded; “We have had friendly relations with Russia for years, we want to maintain them in the future as well and have the support of the Russian Federation,” declared Gutul, who was inaugurated on July 19 as head of this autonomous Turkic-speaking region, whose population speaks, however. , mostly Russian. “Together with Russia, we will be able to obtain more than with another country,” the governor insisted. For her part, Matvienko mentioned that Moscow follows the events in Moldova “with great sadness.” “If the Government of Gagaúzia is willing to collaborate, we will agree on all the necessary support to strengthen and expand our ties; “No one can prohibit us from doing this,” said the Russian president.