France and Poland had a dispute, and as a result, the EU ambassadors failed to settle their differences over joint EU contracts to purchase ammunition for Ukraine.
That’s according to Politico, Ukrinform reports.
As mentioned, France wants to keep the contracts within the EU – not to include US and UK companies in the program, which has delayed the negotiations. France wants to keep the funds within the bloc, irking some of its EU colleagues.
EU ambassadors have been trying to break the impasse over the implementation plan of a joint ammunition purchase for Ukraine. The idea is that EU countries would unite and take money from a common fund to help deliver up to 1 million rounds to Kyiv over the next 12 months.
Although EU leaders have approved the scheme – and even allocated €2 billion to fund it – EU countries have disagreed over how to spend the €1 billion allocated for joint contracts.
According to the three diplomats, the French EU ambassador accused his Polish counterpart of blaming Paris for preventing a final agreement.
The French official said that Paris is simply being “pragmatic,” adding that EU countries have already agreed to spend another €1 billion to reimburse Ukraine for the purchase of ammunition. The Polish official replied that France was only making the current negotiations harder.
Eventually, Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency, stepped in. Swedish officials proposed an updated agreement. The compromise document limited future agreements to “economic operators established in the Union and Norway,” but it mentions that the directive should not set a precedent.
Some diplomats felt that the new text moved too much in the French direction, while others complained that it opened up new questions about which companies or subcontractors should be involved.
Negotiations are now likely to continue next week.
As reported, on April 13, the EU Council approved a decision to allocate 1 billion euros under the European Peace Fund, aimed at immediately supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition to ensure its right to self-defense against Russian aggression.
The EU has decided to deliver 1 million pieces of ammunition to Ukraine as soon as possible. To realize this goal, the EU countries agreed to allocate 1 billion euros from the European Peace Fund to compensate EU countries for the supply of existing ammunition and another 1 billion euros to build the capacity of the European defense industry to produce artillery shells both for Ukraine and to restock arsenals in EU countries.
Source: Paris, Warsaw spar over ammunition supplies to Ukraine
