EU needs to adapt its infrastructure for rapid transportation of military equipment to the eastern borders – Borrell

European Commission Vice-President Josep Borrell commented on a new Military Mobility Action Plan that would help European armed forces to respond more rapidly and at sufficient scale to crises erupting at the EU's external borders and beyond.

"Russian aggression against Ukraine undermines peace and the international rules-based system globally. But it affects us. And we must adapt our defense policy to this new environment", he said.

In his opinion, the European Union needs to adapt the mobility system so that European troops can transport and quickly deploy all their military capabilities. In particular, the fuel supply chain must be examined to ensure that it can meet logistical needs.

"This is critical for our defence: the capacity, the ability to move troops and equipment quickly from one side of the European Union to the other side of the European Union; from the West to the East – mainly - to our external borders", Borrell stressed.

According to the diplomat, it is necessary to prepare bridges, tunnels and roads, as well as trains for transportation of European military forces.

“This “Action Plan” aims to reduce the delays to transport military capacity with 30 actions, enabling to move safer and quicker, ranging from transport infrastructure, regulatory issues, preparedness, and resilience," he added.

These activities also include work on cross-border movement permits and customs formalities and close cooperation with NATO.

"We must share best practices with regional partners, with Western Balkans. We must be ready to prepare deployment of forces in this region, and we will address this with our transatlantic partners in regular dialogues", Borrell emphasized.