EU confession: The productive capacity of the defense industry must be increased

Speaking at the European Defense Agency (EDA) annual conference, Borrell said the war in Ukraine is a “brutal wake-up call” for the EU.

Borrell said: “We realized that our military stocks were running out fast because we hadn’t invested enough in defense for years. The aid we provided to Ukraine caused our stocks to run out quickly. We also realized that we don’t have the critical skills to defend. “We don’t have the skills we need to defend ourselves.”

Expressing that the EU is ready to finance increased production of arms and ammunition to replenish stocks in member states, the EU High Representative said: “We are now entering a new phase. We reached out to the defense industry and asked the relevant companies about their production capabilities. We did the same thing with vaccines months ago. Now we are asking about the industrial capacity. We ask the defense industry how much it can produce. Because we need to help the defense industry to increase its production capacity, ”he said.

In EDA’s annual report, it was stated that EU countries’ defense spending exceeded 200 billion euros for the first time in 2021, member countries’ spending for joint procurement increased, but still remained far behind. below the target. (AA)