2023-05-23 01:01:38
Last December, the European governments had promised to increase that fund amount if necessary due to the course of the war.
The heads of European national diplomacy gave this Tuesday to the European chancellor, the Spanish-Argentine Josep Borrell, his political go-ahead to nearly double funding used to arm Ukraine.
The so-called “European Facility for Peace”, a fund intended to help countries in the Sahel with weapons to fight terrorism, has been used since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine to pay governments Europeans the weapons they send to Ukraine.
The Fund, which originally had 5,000 million euros for the 2021-2027 period, is almost consumed after spending 4,600 million. Now take a leap to reach 7.800 million in anticipation of having to pay for the combat planes that some countries promised to the Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelensky.
Last December, European governments had promised to increase this fund “if necessary.”
The soldiers
In practice, it makes all EU governments, according to their economic capacity, are paying for the weapons being sent to kyiv because everyone feeds that fund according to their economic capacity, but it is only used to pay for the weapons that are sent, so some governments receive more back than others.
The Fund was created in 2021 out of the European Union budget to circumvent the prohibition of European treaties that it could finance the purchase of weapons.
The European chancellors meet this Monday and Tuesday to unblock this increase in the fund for armaments and also to discuss how some european governments start to train ukrainian soldiers in the handling of the most sophisticated weapons (such as combat planes), on the next package of sanctions against Russia and to decide the European role in the July summit promoted by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.
The diplomats also discussed for the first time a proposal by the European Commission to penalize anyone who helps Russia dodge European sanctions, with countries such as Iran, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia or China In the spotlight.
Third countries
Russia dodges much of the Northwest sanctions thanks to the help of third countries who serve as intermediaries to import products that the Europeans no longer sell to you. Most of the European countries have shot up their exports to countries like Turkey, Georgia, Armenia or Kazakhstan in the last year while these countries shot up theirs to Russia.
The European Commission proposed last week a plan to close those holes and To do this, it seeks to punish countries and companies that help Moscow. The proposal is controversial because it could lead to diplomatic clashes with a NATO member state like Turkey or with the Chinese power.
And because it is quite similar to the extraterritorial sanctions that the United States applies and that the European Union has traditionally attacked.
some chancellors they think the proposal goes too far Because when push comes to shove, some European countries could shake their hands if they had to sanction a Chinese industrial giant for the commercial repercussions with which Beijing or Turkey threatens, for fear that it will open its borders to the passage of refugees and migrants from Middle East.
The European Commission has already prepared a list in which it included seven Chinese companies for selling civilian and military dual-use material to Russia, such as microelectronics products that are sold as civilians but that the Russian Armed Forces use for the missile guidance system. their missiles.
PB
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