The ASAP regulation of the European Commission was presented, which will be used, in particular, by companies from 11 member countries, including Italy. A “redirection” of PNRR funds is also possible, reports Euronews, cited by Rador.

It’s called ASAP, an acronym for the Ammunition Production Support Act, and an expression with a clear meaning in English: as soon as possible. This is the regulation just presented by the European Commission to increase the production of ammunition in the EU by allocating 500 million euros from EU funds.

The goal is twofold: to supply Ukraine with weapons and replenish the stockpiles of the member states that have been asked to approve the plan, as well as the European Parliament.

“Current production times do not meet our immediate needs,” explained European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. “For that we need a push: my goal is to see how we can help companies change the manufacturing paradigm,” Breton said.

The three areas on which the plan will focus are industrial expansion, constant monitoring of production at European level, and reduction of slowdowns by establishing “priority contracts”.

ASAP funding comes from two European defense funds: the European Defense Fund (EDF, 260 million) and the European Defense Industrial Reinforcement through the Joint Procurement Act (EDIRPA, 240 million). The Commission expects this to stimulate an additional €500 million in private sector investment.

The EU Commission will also allow part of the cohesion funds and national recovery and resilience plans to be redirected to the defense industry: a choice that is likely to provoke debate. “It is absurd to think that this money needed to restore Italy is being spent on weapons,” Mario Furore, a member of the European Parliament from the 5-Star Movement, immediately commented.

The Community funds will be able to make up to 60% of the co-financing of specific projects, and will benefit, in particular, the military industries of 11 member countries that have the capacity to produce the 155 mm projectiles promised to Ukraine, in particular Italy.

Otherwise, the production efforts required by the European military industry are caused primarily by the need to arm Ukraine.

The ASAP regulation is actually a concrete translation of the need to increase the production capacity of the military industry, that is, the so-called “third pillar” of the special plan presented in March by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep. Borrell to support the resistance of the Government in Kyiv.

According to Borrell, national governments will be less reluctant to supply weapons to Ukraine because they will be more reassured by the possibility of replacing them in a short period of time.

The “first pillar” of this plan provides one billion euros to compensate the EU states that supplied Kyiv with weapons, while the “second pillar” is the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine, which involves an important innovation: the ambassadors of 27 EU countries reached a final agreement on the allocation of one billion euros for shells and missiles under the European Peace Fund, a European instrument that finances military operations in third countries.

As EU sources explain to Euronews, the agreement provides for purchases from military industries with legal headquarters and production facilities in the EU or Norway. But munitions and missiles assembled in Europe will also be allowed, even if they have production chains partly outside Europe. The necessary compromise after the debate over the “Made in Europe” weapons that were to be sent to Ukraine risked significantly slowing down supplies.

But according to Garvan Walsh, a defense policy expert at the Center for European Policy, all this may not be enough.

The amount of ammunition expended in this war is enormous. In a few weeks, Ukraine produces more artillery shells than the combined British and French armies have in stock.

Thus, the expert argues that the plan serves not only to support Ukraine, but also to replenish European stockpiles and so that the Union can once again wage a high-intensity war: “We need to increase the stockpiles, exceeding the level of two years ago,” says Wolsche .

In his opinion, the EU should “consider itself a part of the Western alliance”, which includes not only the USA and Great Britain or Canada, but also South Korea and Japan.

“South Korea, for example, has started building tanks for Poland, partly because it has the ability to do it on a scale of production that European companies don’t currently have. But the market works the other way around.

These are all advanced democratic countries whose foreign policy generally agrees with ours. Thus, the defense industry’s relationship with Seoul or Tokyo is as secure as with the United States.”

Meanwhile, what has just been achieved could also be a significant step towards a common European defence, which will certainly require a fast and efficient military industry, perhaps also a joint one. Euronews (Rador takeover) – Photo: DreamsTime / Swathi Mohan