The member countries of the European Union (EU) agreed this morning to top up the European Peace Facility (EFF), their financing instrument for military assistance to Ukraine, with two billion euros. The agreement still needs to be endorsed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday in Brussels.
An instrument created by EU Member States outside the common budget and supplemented by their contributions, the European Peace Facility was endowed with 5.7 billion euros for the period 2021-2027 in order to finance operational actions relating to common foreign and security policy (CFSP). It was used shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to finance arms supplies to kyiv. And 3.1 billion euros have already been disbursed to reimburse member states for arms and ammunition taken from their stocks and supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces.
With bilateral supplies, the support of EU member states amounts to nearly 9 billion euros, said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.