The European Commissioner for Defense called on countries to open their arsenals to Ukraine and increase weapons production
European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius called on countries to open their arsenals to provide Ukraine with the necessary weapons, as well as to increase production, abandoning the manufacture of “high fashion” weapons. He reported this in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Governments must open their warehouses to provide Ukraine with everything it needs,” — Kubilius emphasized.
The European Commissioner noted that strengthening the Ukrainian army would be even more important if Europe reopened official channels of negotiations with Russia amid growing support for such negotiations in Europe.
“The only formula that can bring peace is the so-called peace through force. The force should be on the side of Ukraine, and Europe can help with this,” he said.
Kubilus also stressed that Europe is inferior to Russia and Ukraine in missile production, as European companies produce complex and expensive weapons that are difficult to scale up quickly.
“Europeans produce what they call “haute couture” products. Technologically very complex, very advanced, very expensive, and it is impossible to scale up. Ukrainians produce what these European industries call “pretty good” products,” the European Commissioner noted.
According to him, Europe should adopt Ukrainian wartime methods and move to cheaper systems that can be produced quickly and in large quantities. quantities.
“Ukrainians have started producing their own Flamingo cruise missile, and this year they are ready to produce about 700 units,” Kubilius said, adding that the EU has produced less than 300 units. Russia has produced 1,200.
The European Commissioner noted that Ukraine could buy weapons from European warehouses, using the €60 billion arms fund from the recently agreed €90 billion loan. Sellers could then use the funds to purchase additional weapons or expand production.
The proposal is designed to address the problem of different national rules and procurement practices, which, according to Kubilius, have effectively closed defense markets and hindered cross-border cooperation in the defense industry.
“There is actually no market and there are many obstacles,” the European Commissioner said.
According to him, EU governments are protecting their own weapons manufacturers. In particular, France and Germany buy 70% of the products produced by their industry, while only about 10% is sold to other EU countries.
The planned reforms should remove technical barriers, in particular through mutual recognition of testing and certification procedures, and simplify the licensing of transfers of military components within the EU, which differs in different member states.
Kubilus also said that consolidation should be encouraged in the defense sector. Governments often invoke national security exemptions to circumvent market principles in defence procurement, creating what he called a “truly closed system”.
The European Commissioner said Europe should not fear the planned merger of Airbus, Thales and Leonardo, called Project Bromo, which aims to create a European leader in space and satellites capable of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“Global competition requires scale and size,” Kubilius said.
