RPT - EU's Ambitious Plan To Boost Ammo Production To Cost Taxpayers Billions - Expert

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2023) The European Union's plans to achieve a level of military production enough to supply both EU member states' stocks and Ukraine will cost billions of Euros in taxpayer money, Belgian military expert and ex-NATO officer Pierre Henrot told Sputnik.

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a draft bill for EU member states to jointly fund the production of munitions and missiles, both for their own use and deliveries to Ukraine. Lawmakers will need to agree the bill with the European Council, after which it will be fast-tracked into a law.

"Ultimately, the European taxpayers will have to foot the bill," Henrot said.

European countries lack production capacities as well as human resources to speed up the ammunition manufacturing in a short term, the expert said. Many of them have depleted their stocks by supplying Ukraine over the past 15 months, but they continue to commit and promise more.

"War economy means nothing today. In 1940, women were massively made to work in arms factories, by all belligerents: the whole nation was under arms. Today, who are we going to put to work? The unemployed? The Illegal immigrants? Adding production lines (which will only be used for a while) would cost billions of euros, and industrialists relent," Henrot said, going on to ask, "Who will pay? Ultimately the taxpayers.

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Decision-making in the European Union rests with the European Council, an organ requiring unanimous consensus of member states. Recalling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's prior vetoing of Council decisions, Henrot said "unanimity in Europe is so difficult to reach."

"Considering the time it takes for a decision to be applied and to add a production line in a factory, that will take a very long time. Too long for being significant in the Ukraine conflict," he said.

Western countries have been supplying Kiev with various types of weapon systems, including air defense missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft guns since Russia launched its special military operation in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against further arms deliveries to Kiev, saying they would be regarded as a legitimate target.