EU is criticising chief diplomat Kallas' billion-euro proposal for Ukraine due to lack of specifics
Source: European Pravda
Details: Kallas' plan to allocate billions of euros for military support to Ukraine was first presented at the extraordinary EU summit on 6 March, and later, she mentioned the figure of €40 billion.
However, European Pravda reports that even at that time, EU officials expressed confusion over the abstract nature of the plan, which changed in cost multiple times.
The publication notes that even despite Hungary's opposition – since its stance was clear from the outset – Kallas still failed to secure unanimous support for her initiative across Europe.
This lack of consensus was reflected in the search for wording regarding Kallas' plan while drafting the conclusions of the 20 March EU summit, which were revised at least twice.
The final version of the conclusions mentioned Ukraine's specific need for artillery ammunition, but it also stressed that supporting the EU top diplomat's plan was not mandatory.
European Pravda sources revealed that Italy, France and Slovakia were the most insistent on changing the wording of the military aid section.
These countries shared opposition to one of the key elements of Kallas' original proposal, which envisioned mandatory contributions from every EU state to Ukraine's military support fund, with the amount calculated based on each state's Gross National Income (GNI).
One senior EU diplomat remarked that, regardless of whether individual states agreed to participate in Kallas' project, her proposal remained "very raw" and did not provide enough clarity for governments to contribute billions of euros from their national budgets.
The official explained that while some officials pressed on making decisions right away, citing the fact that it was nearly halfway through the year and Ukraine needed help, there were reservations about how to justify such a move in public. He questioned where the money would go, underlining the reality that there was no clear proposal.
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