European Parliament seeks to speed up approval of ammunition deal for Ukraine

MEP Weber wrote about this in a letter to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola; the document was obtained by Politico.

"In view of the urgent need to help Ukraine in filling up its ammunition stocks, the EPP Group would like to request an urgent procedure pursuant to Rule 163 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure," Weber wrote in his letter of May 5.

The EU has promised to supply Ukraine with 1 million shells within a year, but there are concerns that it may not fulfill its promise and will not produce the required amount of ammunition on the continent.

The outlet notes that in March, EU ministers asked Brussels to draft a law on the use of the EU budget to increase defense production capacity in the EU to meet the set goals.

Last week, the European Commission approved plans to increase the EU's ammunition production capacity by injecting EUR 500 million from the EU budget into European projectile manufacturing plants to increase weapons production - subject to co-financing of about EUR 500 million from EU member states and other sources.

The draft law, called the “Act in Support of Ammunition Production” (ASAP), aims to produce 1 million rounds of ammunition within one year.

However, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton did not speed up the consideration of the bill to bypass the lengthy procedures of parliamentary committees, hoping that MEPs would decide to speed up the consideration themselves.

It is noted that MEPs will discuss the European Commission's proposal at a plenary session on Monday. They will discuss whether to speed up the consideration of the bill. Weber wants MPs to vote on Tuesday for the accelerated review procedure.

In particular, Weber proposes that the final vote on the adoption of the bill should be scheduled for the session at the end of this month.

• On May 6, it was reported that NATO was stepping up surveillance of submarines after the defense alliance warned that Russia could damage critical underwater facilities.