Most EU countries in favour of expanding fund for military aid for Ukraine – Borrel
The vast majority of the EU member states act in favour of expanding the European Peace Fund (EPF), which is primarily used for military aid for Ukraine, by €3.5 billion.
Source: Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, at the briefing following the meeting of defence ministers of the EU member states on 23 May, as reported by European Pravda
Quote: "The overwhelming majority of the EU member states supports expanding the European Peace Fund by €3.5 billion."
He added that the extension of the fund will help facilitate the aid not only for Ukraine but for other countries as well; money will be divided between them roughly equally. "We need to take into consideration the needs, which arise in other parts of the world," Borrell remarked.
He added that the member states have not yet managed to reach an agreement concerning allocating another tranche of €500 million for Ukraine from the EPF.
"We are still discussing this. I hope we will be able to overcome all obstacles that stand in the way of approving this decision by the end of this week. This is being discussed in technical committees, yet as of today, there is no unanimity," Borrell explained.
The EPF is an off-budget tool with a current volume of almost €8 billion. The EU member states receive compensations of some of their expenses on military aid for Ukraine from this fund. In total, nearly €4.6 billion was spent on military aid for Ukraine from the EPF.
The EPF is used to help many other countries, such as Mozambique, Georgia, Moldova, Mali, Somali, Nigger, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon and Mauritania.
As it is known, Hungary has blocked another 500 million euro tranche from the European Peace Fund, which supports Ukraine with weapons. Péter Szijjártó, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, made it clear that this was caused exclusively by Ukraine’s decision to add OTP Bank to the list of international sponsors of the Russian war against Ukraine.
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