THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 58 represents an innovation. The EU had never previously planned to use CSDP resources to support one of the parties in an inter-state conflict. The European Peace Fa- cility (EPF) was created in 2021 with the aim of funding the shared expenses of the EU’s crisis management op- erations and assistance measures to third parties, states and international organisations, to strengthen their ca- pabilities and crisis management operations (Decision (CFSP) 2021/509). It was reformed and allocated ad- ditional resources to fund the donation of ammunition, equipment and platforms, including lethal weaponry, to Ukraine (Decisions (CFSP) 2022/338). The High Repre- sentative recently announced the Council’s decision to raise the provision of this Fund to support Ukraine to 10 billion euros (Borrell 2023c). Given the Ukrainian government’s urgent need for military equipment, this money will go to those Mem- ber states who issue materiel to Ukraine from their own arsenals. The first and principal suppliers have been the eastern European states, who had stocks of Soviet and Russian arms that the Ukrainians already knew how to operate. The effect of this measure is that the main beneficiaries of the Fund are these countries, and this is enabling them, in turn, to renew and modernise their own military equipment (Gros-Verheyde 2023). An indi- rect result of the EU’s military support for Ukraine, then, has paradoxically been to update the military capabili- ties of Member states, and it is thus contributing to an improvement in the capacity for common defence. It would also be desirable if this money were to be spent on inter-operable equipment, manufactured in Europe, but data on the orders placed by Member states is not yet available. The second innovative measure has been the imple- mentation of the crisis management operation, EUMAM Ukraine (European Union Military Assistance Mission), under which participating Member states train members of the Ukrainian army to improve their combat skills (Decision (CFSP) 2022/1968). Not only is this the first time that an operation has been established to provide military support to a warring party (even if this is cov- ered by the principle of legitimate defence); it is also the first time it has been conducted on the territory of Mem- ber states and not externally. In May 2023, High Repre- sentative Borrell reported that 20,000 soldiers had al- ready been trained, and that this number was expected to reach 30,000 by the end of 2023, twice the number initially proposed, making the mission an “extraordinary success” (Borrell 2023c). The use of European capabili- ties to support Ukraine, such as geospatial intelligence information from the European Union Satellite Centre, is also new (SatCen 2023:28), even if it has limited impact on the development of a common defence. Finally, the decision of the Council of 23 March on the implementation of a three-step mechanism to rapid- ly provide Ukraine with the munitions it needs, to jointly acquire replacement munitions, and to redouble Euro- pean industrial capacity is a qualitative leap (Council of the EU 2023). The objective is the acquisition of one mil- lion 155 mm calibre artillery rounds within a period of twelve months, along with missiles if required. This has created a need for urgent action. The first pathway for this mechanism, which has already been approved, con- sists in allocating a further billion euros, charged to the EPF, to compensate Member states who urgently deliver land-to-land and artillery munitions, including missiles, to Ukraine (Decision (CFSP) 2023/810). The second pathway is joint procurement of muni- tions by Member states, buying from industries in the EU or Norway, a mechanism in which 25 Member states have already expressed an interest (Borrell 2023c). To activate the third pathway, which consists of strength- ening the manufacturing capacity of the European de- fence industry, the European Commission presented its proposed Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) in May 2023, and this now has to be approved by the co-legislators (European Commission 2023). This act contains a range of measures, including financial measures, to support European industrial manufactur- ing capacity. It is logical to assume that this mechanism, although designed to help support Ukraine on a temporary ba- sis, offers huge potential for common defence. Joint purchasing by Member states, if it proves to be speedy and effective, could establish a precedent that goes be- yond ammunition. Another important aspect is the sup- port and development of a European defence industry, whose innovative potential could benefit the competi- tiveness of the wider economy. However, it is important to note that the European industry consists primarily of