European Union (EU) officials have announced a plan to significantly boost weapons production to reduce reliance on the U.S. and aid Ukraine in its ongoing war against invading Russian forces.
Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, told reporters on Tuesday that a new initiative to incentivize production by European arms manufacturers was part of an effort to "counter the return of high-intensity war on our border," according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The plan will initially aim to boost arms production by setting aside €1.5 billion, or about $1.63 billion, from the EU's current budget. Breton previously said that Europe would need to spend €100 billion ($108.5 billion) to truly compete with the U.S. defense industry.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU's commissioner for competition, reportedly acknowledged that the initial investment was "not a lot of money" but argued that the plan would lay the groundwork for Europe to "take more responsibility" for its own security.
Vestager also suggested that the boost in arms production would act as a type of insurance against former U.S. President Donald Trump potentially abandoning Ukraine and NATO if he returns to the White House by winning November's presidential election.
"We must take more responsibility for our own security, while, of course, remaining fully committed to our NATO alliance," Vestager said, according to AFP. "We need to get that transatlantic balance right, irrespective of electoral dynamics in the U.S. ... An improved ability to act will make us a stronger ally."
Vestager went on to argue that it was "no longer sustainable" for EU nations to purchase the bulk of their arms from outside Europe, noting that "almost 80 percent" of weapons that the EU has purchased since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, have been from outside the union, 60 percent from the U.S. alone.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the U.S. Department of Defense via email on Tuesday night.
Under the initiative, EU members will be urged to spend at least half of their defense budgets on European-made weapons by 2030, with the target rising to 60 percent by 2035. The effort will be aided with planned tax breaks and a new mechanism to encourage arms trading within the EU.
Ukraine will be regarded as a "quasi-member" of the EU, easing the path for the war-torn country to acquire EU-produced weapons.
EU members have been sending approximately 80,000 artillery shells to Kyiv per month over the course of the war, according to Breton. In January, the EU announced it would be able to provide only about half of the 1 million artillery shells that it previously promised to Ukraine by March.
While the U.S. has been far and away the largest single provider of military aid to Ukraine during the war, aid has slowed to a crawl this year. An additional $60 billion in assistance requested by President Joe Biden continues to be held up in Congress after months of partisan disputes.
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