The divergence of positions between Brussels and Berlin on the issue of replenishing the military aid fund for Ukraine may lead to delays in arms deliveries to Kiev, the Financial Times has reported.
According to the newspaper, the so-called European Peace Fund with a volume of 12bn euros is financed not from the EU’s general budget, but from the contributions of the bloc’s countries depending on the size of their GDP. The fund was reduced by €5.6bn after the countries that supplied Ukraine with weapons were compensated. Now Brussels insists on replenishing the fund, but the EU members have not yet managed to agree on a specific mechanism for its financing.
According to an anonymous source, Brussels favours a “pay first, get compensation later” model of reimbursement. However, Berlin, amid “serious financial constraints”, demands that the cost of weapons that Germany supplies to Ukraine bilaterally be factored into the German share of the fund. Smaller EU countries, for their part, have warned that this would drastically reduce the size of the fund.
The lack of unity on the issue of reforming the fund has led to the fact that countries, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “did not even discuss the issue of the fund” at the last EU summit. At the same time, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on European leaders at the same summit to “reach an agreement on the fund as soon as possible” in order to prevent delays in arms deliveries to Kiev.