EU defense fund unblocked, and with it new support for Ukraine
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A months-long EU stalemate over a 6.6 billion euro ($7.5 billion) fund for Ukraine is finally resolved, announced the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Sept. 25.
The European Peace Facility (EPF) was established to help prevent conflict and provide non-lethal aid, and is generally funded by direct contributions from EU countries.
Its scope was expanded in light of Russia's full-scale invasion to provide direct lethal aid to Ukraine, and it has provided Kyiv with 11.1 billion euros ($12.7 billion) of support since 2022.
"EU Member States have agreed on the terms for releasing 6.6 billion euro European Peace Facility funds for Ukraine," Kallas wrote on social media.
"That’s good news for Ukraine and bad news for Russia."
The EPF money had been frozen in place for a long time because then Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the reimbursement mechanism, taking the matter to court — a case that was ultimately dismissed on Sept. 9.
And post-Orban, EU countries could not agree on how much they should be reimbursed and at what rates, and if the money should instead be rolled over into new support for Ukraine.
With agreement finally reached, the 6.6 billion euros will be divided into three parts, with the lion's share, 4.7 billion euros ($5.4 billion), reimbursing EU countries for weapons deliveries they have already made to Ukraine.
Some countries have already indicated that they will pledge their shares of that 4.7 billion pot into new support for Ukraine, such as Germany, and Sweden.
EU defense ministers will meet on Sept. 28 in Brussels, and similar commitments could be announced then.
Another 900 million euros ($1 billion) of the unblocked EPF money is earmarked to top up the EU's Military Assistance Mission for Ukraine (EUMAM).
EUMAM is the program under which European countries bring Ukrainian soldiers into the EU, train them, and then send them back to Ukraine.
Kallas has repeatedly called to deliver that training within Ukraine, something she could raise once again at the defense ministers meeting, which she chairs.
And another one billion euros of the unlocked EPF cash will fund new joint procurement of equipment, Kallas writes.
