France blocks EU decision to finance ammunition for Ukraine - PAP

This was reported by the Polish news agency PAP with reference to a senior EU official.

It is noted that the decision was made at the EU summit in March: funding of 2 billion euros should be provided from the European Peace Fund. However, a legally binding document is needed for its final action.

Half of the amount should be used to reimburse the supply of ammunition from member states' warehouses. Currently, European warehouses do not have the required number of shells, so an initiative to purchase outside the EU was launched.

"France, however, opposed this. In this situation, the way out would be to receive ammunition from a third country as a donation, and then reimburse it from the warehouses of a member state by transferring other weapons to the third country. Talks about this are ongoing... Before the holidays, the French blocked the EU's decision on the second billion euros. The draft contained a note that the ammunition should be reimbursed based on requests submitted by Ukraine. Paris, however, wants to remove this provision without explaining why. This means the possibility of reimbursement for ammunition that Ukraine has not requested. In addition to the decision on ammunition, France wants to add the possibility of reimbursement for missile supplies," the EU source said.

As reported in a Bloomberg article quoting Polish politicians, Berlin is more focused on competing with Poland for international recognition in supplying weapons to Ukraine, and is therefore slowing down the transfer of spare parts to Warsaw.