The European Parliament on Thursday approved a bill on increasing European production of ammunition and missiles, which aims to speed up the delivery of ammunition and missiles to Ukraine and help member states rebuild their arsenals.

Introducing concrete measures, including €500 million in funding, the Ammunition Support Act (ASAP) aims to increase EU production capacity to address current shortages of defense products, including land-based and artillery munitions, missiles and their components.

The European Commission will identify, map and continuously monitor the availability of these defense products, their components and related raw materials. The proposal establishes mechanisms, principles and temporary rules to ensure the timely and sustainable availability of these defense products for their buyers in the European Union, the cited source also indicated.

The effectiveness of this regulation will be evaluated by mid-2024, taking into account the evolution of the security context. According to the results, it is possible to consider the possibility of expanding these measures and allocating an additional budget.

The European Commission presented the law as soon as possible on 3 May 2023, and in the same month MEPs agreed to launch an emergency parliamentary procedure to speed up the approval of the bill.

The law was adopted by 446 votes “for”, 67 “against” and 112 abstentions. MEPs will now begin negotiations with the Council to reach a political agreement, which the European Parliament intends to vote on in its plenary session in July, News.ro reports.

In parallel, MEPs are working on the Strengthening the European Defense Industry through Joint Public Procurement Act (EDIRPA) to support cooperation between Member States at the defense procurement stage to cover the most urgent and critical gaps.

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