The European Union’s first defense commissioner candidate wants every member state to be prepared for possible conflicts.
The first defense commissioner candidate in the history of the European Union, Lithuania Andrius Kubilius wants to set minimum requirements for the size of the ammunition stocks of the member countries. Reported about it The Financial Times.
Kubilius will take up his position as commissioner in full if the European Parliament approves his appointment at the end of the year.
Kubilius would like to develop the Union’s defense capabilities within a couple of years to the point that the Union could withstand a conflict with Russia.
Kubilius compares the ammunition situation to, for example, natural gas, which member countries must keep in reserve for exceptional situations.
– Why don’t we have some kind of goals in terms of military security of supply, that we should have a certain amount of artillery shells and other materials, such as gunpowder, in our warehouses?
According to Kubilius, setting targets for such ammunition stocks would also help boost the EU’s defense industry by providing it with permanent demand.
According to Kubilius, the EU has indeed improved its capabilities and the production of its defense industry since the start of the war in Ukraine, but there is still a long way to go. In Kubilius’s opinion, the EU countries need joint debt to increase ammunition production and build joint air defense.
Kubilius says that he also counts Britain as part of Europe’s defense, even though the country no longer belongs to the EU.
– We consider Britain a part of Europe. Democratic Europeans should be as equal as possible, Kubilius told FT.