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European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday that Europe needs to strengthen its defense capabilities and move into “war economy” mode in response to the Russian threat.
In an op-ed published in European newspapers and on the Euractic website, Michel, who will chair Thursday’s EU summit to discuss aid to Ukraine, said Europe must take responsibility for its own security. , said there was no need to rely heavily on support from other countries.Countries such as the United States
Michel said: “If the EU doesn’t get it right and give Ukraine enough support to stop Russia, we’ll be next. So we have to prepare for our defense and move into ‘war economy’ mode.” It must be done,” he said.
“If you want peace, you have to prepare for war,” he said.
Michel said Europe has made progress since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, including increasing its munitions manufacturing capacity by 50%, but more needs to be done and Europe has been in the same position for decades. He said the country had not invested enough in security and defense.
Michel urged EU countries to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs on the battlefield, including spending EU funds on military equipment and using windfall profits from Russia’s disabled assets to buy weapons for Ukraine. I asked them to make sure that they could receive it.
He called on countries to boost investment in defense, including by considering changing the remit of the European Investment Bank, the EU’s lending arm, to enable it to support Europe’s defense industry.
Funding Ukraine’s war against Russia
EU member states on Monday approved a deal that increases EU aid to Ukraine’s military by 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion). Ukraine has been tied up by Congress in a $60 billion U.S. aid package amid warnings that Kiev’s military needs more resources to prevent it from fighting a massive Russian force.
(1 dollar = 0.9199 euro)
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