European Union foreign ministers to approve a 3.5 billion euro increase in military aid to Ukraine, officials said on Friday.
Brussels is preparing to give the green light to a substantial increase in military aid to Ukraine. European Union (EU) foreign ministers will approve a €3.5 billion increase in aid to Kyiv forces, officials said on Friday (23 June). Ministers are expected to raise the ceiling of the EU’s ‘Peace Facility’ (EPF) program – which has already allocated some €5.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine – at a meeting on Monday in Luxemburg.
Hungary, however, continues to block the release of another 500 million euros from the fund, officials say. Budapest has said it will not lift its block until Kiev removes Hungarian bank OTP from a list of companies it considers “international sponsors” of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Hungary called the bank’s inclusion “outrageous”.
Raising. “On Monday a decision will be taken to increase the European Peace Facility by €3.5 billion,” a senior EU official said on condition of anonymity. “But there will be no decision on a new tranche of the European Peace Facility for Ukraine, as there is no agreement yet between the member states on this”, a- he specified.
Set up in 2021, this program was designed as a way for the EU to help developing countries procure military equipment. But the Twenty-Seven quickly decided to use the fund to supply arms to Ukraine in the face of the offensive launched by Russia in February 2022.
Due to the war, the ETH ran out of cash much faster than expected. It originally had a budget of 5 billion euros, supposed to last until 2027. This ceiling has already been raised once, by 2 billion euros, last December. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in May asked EU governments to contribute more to the program. The EPF is separate from the community block budget, which cannot be used to fund military operations.
This article is originally published on lopinion.fr
