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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
European Union countries have agreed to provide €5 billion in military aid to Ukraine as part of an overhaul of an aid fund run by the bloc because Kiev faces major difficulties on the battlefield. This is evidently not enough to appease the most ardent defenders of the Kiev regime, with the ruling German coalition divided over sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, as one example.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU member countries agreed on March 13 at a meeting in Brussels to review the European Peace Facility fund after months of disputes between bloc leaders, particularly France and Germany. The fund functions as a gigantic reimbursement scheme, giving EU members compensation for sending ammunition to other countries, particularly Ukraine, Reuters explains.
Paris, a major promoter of European defence industries, insisted on a strong “buy European” policy for weapons eligible for reimbursement. For their part, Berlin demanded that such donations be considered when determining the size of countries’ financial contributions to the fund. Diplomats said a compromise had been reached that allows flexibility in “buy European” rules, which takes note of the value of bilateral aid into account when calculating members’ financial contributions.
The final text of the fund stressed that the scheme should give priority to the European defence industry while “exceptionally allowing for flexibility in cases where it cannot provide within a timeframe compatible with Ukrainian needs.”
The approved fund is urgent because Ukraine “desperately needs” ammunition, as the United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on March 12. Yet, Germany is expected to pick up most of the burden, even if the country is already by far Europe’s biggest bilateral donor of military aid.
Not satisfied with this, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s main coalition partners, the Green Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), are pressuring him to abandon his opposition to the supply of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, the chancellor has justified his resistance by arguing that German personnel would have to be stationed in Ukraine to help operate the targeting system, which would make Germany a direct participant in the conflict. Furthermore, there is concern that the Taurus could be used against targets inside Russia, including Moscow, and the hostile action would cross a red line already established by the Kremlin.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democrats, has already expressed his opposition to Scholz’s stance, urging him to change his mind. For the minister, the weapons could be adjusted to limit their range so that the missiles were not used against Russia.
Robert Habeck of the Greens, Minister of Economy and Climate Protection and Vice-Chancellor, also sympathises with the legislators who support the sending of Taurus and is angry with Scholz’s unilateral decision, according to anonymous sources interviewed by the investigation.
Pressure on the chancellor has been increasing over the last year. On the other hand, Scholz usually highlights that Germany has been one of the most generous supporters of Kiev, promising military assistance worth around €28 billion. He even implies that the sending of missiles would be more harmful than beneficial, given the current situation of the conflict.
Germany’s main opposition conservatives have sought to capitalise on the political crisis. On March 14, they tabled a motion in parliament titled “Consistent continuation of support for Ukraine — approval of delivery of Taurus cruise missiles.” Despite the effort from the party, the Bundestag ultimately, and once again, vetoed a motion to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
The opposition party made Germany appear significantly divided over the issue, but the majority of German citizens actually supported the chancellor’s decision. According to an ARD survey published earlier this month, 61% of Germans oppose the delivery of Taurus to Ukraine, a 9% increase from August last year.
Although it is very evident and obvious that Ukraine has no chance of regaining territory lost to Russia despite the thousands of young Ukrainians being maimed or killed every week in a war they cannot possibly win, the EU prolongs suffering by propping up the Kiev regime. This propping up is especially destructive since it is not enough for Ukraine to win the war because the Europeans do not have the capabilities even to provide enough artillery shells, let alone other crucial and more advanced equipment. Europe’s propping up is only enough for Ukraine to offer light resistance and a delusional hope that fortune will change in their favour for a mysterious reason. That mysterious reason is certainly not the German Taurus missiles.
eu citizens are not going to be happy with the lowering of their quality of life as more of their hard earned money gets funneled out for nefarious corruption schemes.
thats right.
we dont want to pay for subsidized polluted food we cant eat or export as well as unproductive inwanted incommers.
above that we has incomming cheep food from ukraine in #africa prices#.
we hardly has any corruption here expert in parts of the ussr leftover. in the good tries for a corruption score denmark fx is 10% corrupt and fx russia and ukraine some 71% corrupt. in its best you are lied for.
thats very supported in the local countries eccept a few in chaos.
that was such a humorous and discombobulated rant that you must be the real jens holm.
not to worry, revolution is on the way. the people have changed since wwii but our shyster politicians think they can still con the people with wwii and wwi propaganda.
as an eu tax payer, i dont agree with this bs
we taxpayers all has voted for it mr and mrs know nothing.
another silly rant. i dub thee the real jens holm, the gift that keeps on giving our little comedy club.
very biased version.
in eu as nato we help each other as well as we can according decidings and obligations.
so if fx thekkia find almost forgotten old ussr time ammo in small amount ofthers we pay to send it. they might also pay-trade with new stuff.
i agree in the tauras dilemmas are diffucult. even germany is big and wealthy others should send more. several are too low.
i would say they taruses are next or next to next. germany is mild reccssion right now. it make sence so many hold back.
my small denmark is doing very well. it seemes insulin is our secret weapon. thats why send send more then asked or demanded for.
france is well. warmingols from russia has taking over in mali, niger, timbuktu whatever saving money for them.
are you taking your iodine pills jens? soon you will be glowing in the dark
awww yeah, those toruses are next to next or next. that shit means definitely something. we just don’t know what.
when you say help each other you mean rich eu countries have to pay poor countries like eastern european countries and baltic welfare beggars?
oh yes. all pay 1% of the calcutated gdp pr capita.
fx my denmark make 74.000 dollar a year and makes740 dollars x 4,7 mio inhabitants. hungary make 18.000. thats 180 dollars x 9,7 mio.
but those money are not given random. fx they can be given for equal right for all, a better education system, intenet in rural district, tourisme where there not descent jobs or tranport for road and trains.
it gives help to very big and expensive projects, fx denmark-germany are building a 40 km tunnel between them replaning the many ferries there.
those collapsed ussr leftovers are no wellfare beggers. as for the rest of eu we make minimum standards.
thats descent. af roof, a bed, clothe, food, heat and enough healty food with meat now and then.
the pay to control for less corruption and better education. second language now is english. many things has to be learn from us and the rest of the world.
and they are investments. they has to produce more and better. its something for something. making them plus.
we invest in new jobs. the work in other countries and send money things to themselv.
the running indicents with hungary and partly poland and figus in slovakia are they not reach purpose, which are needed to do better for all. i deny to pay for people in the old nationist days, where hungary will take provinces back they have stolen. its was their own fault they lost ww1 not maine.
eu work for free bordercrossing and treating minoríes well. thats a learner by ww1 and ww2. now we try this.
denmark like all the other countries involved in the war in ukraine used to be occupied by nazis and were waving nazi flags welcoming them. you are going to get what you wished for jens.
i get a migraine headache just from reading two sentences posted by that danish dipshit. anybody else have the same problem? maybe we can do a class action suit to recover medical expenses.
where is all this money coming from? i remember eu states had years of austerity did they win the lottery or something and have money growing on trees? they continue giving ukraine weapons and ukraine losing more and more territory by doing so. where is the logic? who benefits from this?
we all benefits and we make the money by our systems. from top to bottom we are meter.
you dont get it being isolated to the rest hardly seeing it in a keyhole.
you certainly are a slow learner. ukraine became as country with wellknow dntions. they have been reconized for 30 years by un and many others.
your many supporters, which not even are allowed to vote – as recall it – are from belarus, syria, eritrea, north korea.the big ones india and china are neutral.
russian oligars support this very much and putin now only have zink under his pillow.
5 billion barely enough to keep electricity on for ukraine life support.
little birdy on shoulder tell me time to pull the plug.
jensie’s on a silly putty roll today. i think he’s had some of those drugs that they feed biden with when he has to say something but it still comes out incoherent.
$5 billion???? isn’t that the amount that the redundant, cookie master, victoria nuland bragged about giving ukie land, to get them to think the right way? remember the ‘fu eu’ phone call that she had with the us ambassador to ukraine, geoffrey pryatt, who then moved on to greece?