Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has criticised Hungary for blocking the top-up of a special fund from which arms deliveries from EU states to Ukraine will be reimbursed. "I'm really disappointed about this," Pistorius said on Tuesday at the meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels. "This is not the principle of European solidarity, which I think is the right thing to do."

Thomas Gutschker

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

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The day before, Budapest had prevented a decision by the foreign ministers to increase the European Peace Facility by 3.5 billion euros. Hungary is demanding that Ukraine remove Hungary's largest bank, OTP, from a list of war supporters. Pistorius pointed out that the blockade hinders the reimbursement of expenditure by member states. "That's not a fine move," he added. Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that so far the states have submitted invoices for around 10 billion euros, of which 3.6 billion euros have been reimbursed to them

Pistorius was cautious about possible support for the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. "The possibilities for this would be extraordinarily limited and are currently being examined," he said. However, the Bundeswehr cannot contribute anything significant because it does not have an F-16. The United Kingdom and France do not have this type either, but have already announced their intention to participate in pilot training.

Decision on the supply of aircraft only later

Dutch Defense Minister Kasja Ollongren said in Brussels that the United States had given the "green light" to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s. The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom could now finalize their plans and talk to other states that have such fighter jets. In NATO, these are Greece, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Romania. Ollongren emphasized that only in the next step will it be necessary to decide on the supply of aircraft to Ukraine. The Netherlands, Norway and other states could give up their F-16s in exchange for new F-35 fighter jets they ordered from the United States.

Another topic at the meeting of defense ministers was the supply of artillery ammunition to Ukraine. The EU states had promised Kiev two months ago that they would deliver one million shells within a year. However, according to F.A.Z. information, the member states have only sold just over 60,000 of their own stocks; for this, and for more than a thousand missiles, they submitted invoices in the amount of 650 million euros for reimbursement. About half is to be replaced by the Peace Facility.

In order to achieve their goal, the EU states must above all boost their own production. One billion euros from the special fund is available for this purpose. In the meantime, the states have agreed on the necessary regulation – after a long struggle, especially between Germany and France, about how much production must be located in Europe. Pistorius alluded to this when he said on Tuesday: "It must be about pragmatic solutions and not about trying to influence what arms companies can and should do through dirigisme."