Discussions are ongoing at the EU over plans to establish a new fund to support Ukraine militarily that some EU nations want to use as a way to revamp the current funding mechanism, known as the European Peace Facility, Bloomberg has reported.
Under the EPF, member states are reimbursed for weapons they send Ukraine. The size of the facility has been expanded several times but decisions to allocate and disburse funds require unanimous backing from member states. In practice, that has allowed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to delay or veto aid to Ukraine.
The European External Action Service has proposed giving the fund an annual budget of about €5 billion ($5.4 billion) but that has failed to achieve consensus among member states. Officials will soon present member states with a new options paper, said the people.
Envoys from several countries, including Germany, suggested at Wednesday meeting that the EPF in its current formulation is becoming less effective since more weapons deliveries moving forward will at the expense of newly purchased weapons rather than being drawn from existing stocks.
Other member states would prefer to see the assistance fund baked into the EPF, while some nations want to continue with the current mechanism, said the people, who all spoke on condition of anonymity.
Berlin had earlier called on member states to be more transparent about the support they're providing Ukraine amid worries that some nations are not doing enough.