EU Commissioner urged EU countries to open arsenals for Ukraine and abandon "haute couture" weapons - FT
Kyiv • UNN
Andrius Kubilius urged the EU to open arsenals for Ukraine and move to mass production of weapons. Europe is currently lagging behind the Russian Federation in missile production.
EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has called on countries to open their weapon arsenals for supplies to Ukraine and increase production by moving away from "haute couture" weaponry, the Financial Times reports, according to UNN.
"Governments must open their arsenals to provide Ukraine with what it needs,"
Strengthening the Ukrainian armed forces would be even more important if Europe were to reopen formal channels of negotiation with Russia, Kubilius said, amid growing momentum in Europe for such talks.
"The only formula that can bring peace is the so-called peace through strength. Strength must be on the Ukrainian side," and Europe can help with this, he emphasized.
Kubilius, a former Prime Minister of Lithuania, also warned that Europe is lagging behind Russia and Ukraine in missile production, as its companies produce complex and expensive weapons that are difficult to scale.
"Europeans produce what they call 'haute couture' products. Technologically very complex, very advanced, very expensive, and impossible to scale up," he said. "Ukrainians produce what these European industrial enterprises call 'good enough'."
Kubilius, who leads Brussels' efforts to strengthen Europe's defense-industrial base, said Europe needs to learn from Ukraine's wartime methods and shift to cheaper systems that can be produced quickly and at scale.
"The Ukrainians have started producing their own 'Flamingo' cruise missiles, and this year they are ready to produce about 700," he noted.
By comparison, he said, the EU produced fewer than 300. Russia produced 1,200.
He said Ukraine could buy EU weapons from stockpiles using a 60 billion euro weapons fund from the recently agreed 90 billion euro loan. Sellers could then use that money to buy more or increase production.
His call comes as the EU prepares initiatives aimed at boosting defense production and reducing the fragmentation of the European arms industry. Brussels is set to present a plan for creating a more integrated market in July, the publication writes.
The proposal aims to address the problem of disparate national regulations and procurement practices, which he said have effectively closed defense markets and hindered cross-border industrial cooperation in defense.
"In reality, there is no market, and the obstacles are numerous," Kubilius said.
He argued that national governments are heavily protecting domestic defense leaders, with large countries like France and Germany buying 70 percent of what their own industry produces, while only about 10 percent was sold to other EU countries.
The planned reforms aim to overcome technical barriers, such as mutual recognition of testing and certification procedures, as well as simplifying licenses for the transfer of military components within the EU, which vary across member states.
Kubilius also said that consolidation in the defense sector should be encouraged. Governments often cite national security exemptions to avoid following market principles in defense procurement, creating what he called a "truly closed system."
Europe should not fear the planned merger of Airbus, Thales, and Leonardo under the name Project Bromo, which aims to create a European leader in space and satellites capable of competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Kubilius said.
Global competition requires "scale and size," he added. "That is exactly what Bromo offers. How to maintain a competitive environment domestically is always a question, but I think it should not be an obstacle for us in expanding some of our leaders," he said.