Estonian Prime Minister offers EU a plan to boost defense sector
Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia (photo: Getty Images)
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas proposed that the European Union issue €100 million in Eurobonds to finance the European defense industry. She also called for more to be done to provide weapons to Ukraine.
"We are in a place where we need to invest more and [explore - ed.] what we can do together, because the bonds that would be issued by separate countries individually are too small to scale. Eurobonds could have a much bigger impact," Kallas said in an interview with Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg, Callas' idea was also supported by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel. More frugal countries, such as the Netherlands and Germany, are likely to be less interested in this.
The Estonian prime minister also spoke about helping Ukraine. According to her, today the EU should focus on building up Ukrainian industry and securing long-term contracts for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, as well as looking for stockpiles of weapons around the world to buy them and transfer them to Ukraine.
"Europe has done a lot and has to also do more. That is clear," she emphasized, calling on the allies to fulfill their promise to spend 0.25% of GDP over the next four years to support Ukraine.
Earlier, European Commissioner for Finance Johannes Hahn said that the EU would be able to produce up to 2 million artillery rounds for Ukraine annually starting in 2025.
And yesterday, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague had found 800,000 artillery shells around the world that could be sent to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
