Brussels establishes task force on integrating Ukraine's defence industry into EU
Ukraine and the European Union have established a Ukraine–EU Task Force to expand cooperation between European and Ukrainian defence industries.
During the opening of the second Ukraine–EU Defence Industry Forum in Brussels, the creation of a Task Force to expand cooperation between the defence industries of Ukraine and the EU was announced.
"Today we are launching a new EU–Ukraine Task Force on defence-industrial cooperation in order to promote concrete solutions," said Charles Fries, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service.
Herman Smetanin, Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, announced that the Task Force will hold its first meeting on the same day.
"Ukraine's defence industry has proved resilience under fire in the face of restrictions, capable of producing that modern arm needs today. It is remarkable, today we have a chance to witness the first Task Force meeting under the umbrella of the second EU–Ukrainian Defence Industry Forum. We must fully integrate Ukraine's defence sector into the European defence technologies and industrial base, and looking forward to exploring opportunities to contribute to the Rearm Europe programme," Smetanin said.
"Today we announce the creation of the Inter-Institutional EU–Ukraine Task Force. And today Ukrainian and European experts of that group will convene for the very first meeting to assist integration of our defence industries, to facilitate development of joint projects or joint procurement processes," EU Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius said.
Ukrainian officials told European Pravda that the main objective of the Task Force will be "to facilitate the integration of Ukraine’s defence industry into the EU ecosystem, particularly by assisting in participation in programmes available to EU member states under the upcoming European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) and the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument included in the ReArm Europe plan."
As previously reported by European Pravda, the EU will allocate an additional €900 million from extraordinary revenues generated by frozen Russian assets for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, increasing the EU’s recent total support for Ukraine’s defence industry to €3.3 billion.
The EU pledged to transfer €1 billion from the profits of frozen Russian assets to fund weapons purchases from Ukraine’s defence industry.