The EU Commission wants to boost the production of ammunition in the member states with 500 million euros. The money from the regular budget is to be used to modernize and rebuild production facilities and overcome financing bottlenecks. Defence Commissioner Thierry Breton, at the launch of the legislative initiative on Wednesday, set the target of producing one million grenades in the EU every year. In this way, the states are supposed to fill gaps that arise for them as a result of their support for Ukraine.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries, based in Brussels.

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Breton, who is currently visiting all manufacturers of heavy artillery ammunition, expressed confidence that capacities could be ramped up quickly. "We still have real production capacity" in Europe, he said, which is larger than in the US. In eleven EU countries, 15 companies produce heavy artillery ammunition. The Commissioner did not want to put a figure on their current capacity because it was confidential. According to Estonia, which initiated the initiative, only up to 300,000 shells of 155 millimeter caliber were recently manufactured in the EU. Breton pointed out that arms companies complained in particular about access to the capital market. This is related to ethical requirements for many investment funds.

Half of the money will come from the European Defence Fund and half from a programme with which the Commission wants to promote the joint procurement of military equipment (EDIRPA). Co-financing by the Member States is envisaged, which is expected to provide a total of more than one billion euros for the defence sector. The program complements the supply of grenades to Ukraine, which is funded from a special pot with two billion euros. Above all, it is intended to replenish the largely empty warehouses of the Member States.

Breton said that it was now a matter of "getting into the mode of a war economy." The Federal Government strictly rejects this formulation. In a war economy in the literal sense of the word, the entire civilian economy is subordinated to military purposes.