Future EU defence commissioner calls for mandatory ammunition stockpiles

The first EU defence commissioner is determined to make EU countries stock a minimal level of ammunition and other stocks, saying it is the best way to increase the scale of the underdeveloped armament industry of the EU in order to prepare it for war. Source: European Pravda with reference to Financial Times Details: Andrius Kubilius, who will take the job this year if the European parliament approves, said the EU must prepare for a Russian attack within a few years.

He compared his plan to similar agreements regarding natural gas, under which the countries must preserve reserves and share them with their neighbours in need.

"Why do we not have some kind of criteria called military security to keep in storage such and such an amount of artillery shells and some other products . . . let's say powder [explosives]? You bring added value to the security of member states but in addition, you are creating permanent demand for production, which is the biggest issue for the defence industry. They lack stable long-term orders for production.

Democratic Europeans should be as united as possible," Kubilius said, adding that the UK is considered a part of Europe.

The EU is trying to extend the scale of armament production after Ukraine was forced to ration ammunition and missiles in an attempt to repel Russian offensive actions. Finland, Russia's neighbour, is one of the few EU member states with large armament stocks, while it was reported in 2022 that Germany would run out of ammunition after two days of combat action. Kubilius said he had no wish to duplicate the role of NATO.

Officials at the US-dominated alliance have criticised the EU's alternative set of equipment standards and procurement efforts. In March the EU allocated EUR500 million under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) to boost output capacity to two million shells annually by the end of 2025. Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister, said that was an improvement on the 300,000 annual limit when Russia attacked Kyiv in 2022.

However, he notes this is still not enough. "If I'm correct, we're still behind the Russians," he said. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated that the EU needed to spend EUR500 billion to compensate for the deficit of defence expenditures since the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

She gave Kubilius 100 days after taking office to produce a white paper on defence strategy. She says it should include a European air shield, which would cost hundreds of billions of euros, and a cyber defence system. Kubilius wants EU member states to borrow the money for this jointly - this idea is opposed by Germany and the Netherlands, which make clean contributions to the budget.

He will also outline other projects which are of common interest and can be funded in the EU, including the ways of encouraging defence industry companies to cooperate across borders. Kubilius added that he would like to cooperate with Ukrainian armament manufacturers more tightly, as drones and missiles have changed the modern battlefield. "They have real-world experience," he said. Kubilius warned that there was no time to lose, citing Germany's assessment that Russia could be ready to attack an EU member by 2029.

It was revealed on 17 September that Andrius Kubilius, a representative of Lithuania, was appointed to the new position of the defence and space commissar. Ursula von der Leyen stated that Kubilius would work on the "development of the defence union and strengthening of our investment and industrial capability". This is the first time the position of a EU defence commissar is created.

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