Member States "have drawn on their stocks of ammunition, light or even heavy artillery, anti-aircraft or anti-tank defense systems or even armored vehicles and tanks. This has de facto created a vulnerability that now acts to fill in urgently", explained the European commissioner Thierry Breton, during a press conference.
Priority will be given to the purchase of portable air missiles, portable anti-tank missiles, 155 mm guns and their ammunition.
"We have to move quickly, given the state of national stocks," he pleaded.
But member states retain "total freedom" for their purchases, he said.
"The commission or the EU will not actually buy arms. The EU budget is only used to encourage member states to cooperate".
"This will make it possible to spend public money better and to strengthen our European industrial base", underlined Thierry Breton.
"Our proposal complements the European Defense Fund which focuses on research and development" and is endowed with 8 billion euros for the period 2021-27, he said.
The new instrument is endowed with 500 million euros over two years, i.e. the period 2023 to 2024, but it is called to "become sustainable on a larger scale", as was the case for the European Defense Fund, a he specified Mr. Breton.
"Europe has been disarmed for twenty years compared to all the other continents. Compared to the United States, Russia, India and China, we are the only continent to have lowered our investments", he recalled.
Member states have pledged to devote 2% of their GDP to defense spending, but only seven of them (Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Croatia and Slovakia) have reached this target in 2022.
France is at 1.90%, Italy at 1.54%, Germany at 1.44% and Spain is second to last on the list at 1.01%.
For twenty years, the cumulative collective deficit "compared to this objective of 2%" has reached 1,300 billion euros "and it shows in our stocks", noted Thierry Breton.
© 2022 AFP