The EU foreign policy chief on Tuesday urged faster European defence production as the bloc’s defence ministers met in Brussels for talks covering Ukraine, industrial capacity and Middle East security issues.
“We are focusing on innovation and joint projects because we have too many projects in different member states that are not interoperable,” Kaja Kallas said ahead of the meeting.
She stressed that the EU needed to push member states towards “more joint procurement” and greater innovation, adding that lessons from Ukraine should be taken into account.
Kallas noted that defence industry output remained a concern despite available funding.
“The countries have a lot of funding on the table, but the defence industry is not ramping up its production,” she said.
Ukraine’s defence minister is expected to join the talks, where discussions will include a proposed €90 billion ($97.8 billion) loan aimed at addressing Kiev’s urgent needs, Kallas said.
She added that ministers would also meet representatives of the defence industry to examine bottlenecks in production and delivery.
