The war in Ukraine is draining the EU’s military resources Atalayar

European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell says that Europe’s military reserves are “exhausted”. Due to the war in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia led by Vladimir Putin.

EU ‘does not have adequate defense capabilities’ Josep Borrell pointed out that the war in Ukraine exposed the “lack of our military resources” and the “fragility of our supply chains” to face future threats. This is very worrying as other threats will emerge in the future and threaten the security of the EU.

The European official assessed this war as a “warning”. Regarding the military capabilities of the EU. “We spared no effort to supply weapons to Ukraine. But we realized that our military resources were depleted,” Borrell said, noting that “we don’t have significant defensive capabilities to protect us.”

European countries have allocated 8 billion euros to arm Ukraine, and it shows. The stockpile of European weapons intended for Ukraine is almost exhausted, which threatens European security in the future.

Despite this, The Spanish diplomat in charge of EU foreign relations noted that European cooperation in the field of security and defense “has begun to bear fruit”. Given the element of the European Defense Agency and aid to EU Member States to “develop their defence”.

Josep Borrell explained that the European Defense Agency this week “two very important documents”, An overview of Europe’s defense scenario, stating that these two reports “give more importance to the current geopolitical situation.”

The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy emphasized this “The starting point of our discussions is Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Insisting on the importance of “supporting Ukraine politically, economically and militarily to drive out the invaders,” he said, “We must be able to play this role necessary for Ukraine to win.”

Information @EUDefenceAgency Show that Europeans spend more on defense. Now we also need to spend better and collaborate more. Supporting Ukraine, addressing immediate needs and preparing for the future. New blog post #EUDefense: https://t.co/kzMSxTwM9r pic.twitter.com/7EHcn5pf7B

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) December 11, 2022

According to the European Defense Agency, The volume of defense spending within the European Union increased to 214 billion euros in 2021. This is an equivalent increase of 6% over 2020 and the highest annual growth rate since 2015. Borrell believes that these figures are “still far from the 2% that NATO has set as a standard for member states”. He added that “there is a general difference between Member States, Member States spend an average of 1.5% of their GDP on defence, while “there are five countries that increased their defense spending by 20% or more last year. including one with 42%.

And he felt it “It is good that the reports of the European Defense Agency show that our defense investment of 52 billion euros last year was at a record level. This is equivalent to 24% of total defense spending, and we have exceeded the agreed standard by 20% for the third year in a row.”

The numbers show we’re on the right track, “but not far enough,” as acknowledged by Borrell, who emphasized the need for more “collaboration” and advocated increased short-term investment and joint procurement of equipment given that “our inventories are scarce and our supply chain is fragile.”

Josep Borrell stressed the importance of Europe “taking more responsibility for its own security”. “In order to achieve this, we need to increase cooperation to provide the defense capabilities we need,” he said.

The Spanish diplomat “to prevent fragmentation and deepen unity by developing the national plans of the Member States in the perspective of the European Union”, they must “systematically plan and develop opportunities for cooperation.” For Josep Borrell, the depletion of Europe’s arms stockpile is due to the fact that the EU’s military-industrial complex has not received the necessary European funding in recent years, and the problem now appears to be the demand for support for the Ukrainian armed forces. forces faced the Russian occupation.