EU’s defense industry strategy to take into account Ukraine’s needs, industrial capacity – von der Leyen

The relevant statement was made by President of the Eurean Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the Eurean Defence Agency (EDA) Annual Conference 2023 in Brussels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Strategic focus. Better rules. Dual use. And funding. These are the four main pillars of our upcoming strategy. But at the end, there are some more tics that I want to raise about the geographic sce of our work. A strategic approach to our defence industry must also look into the question of Ukraine’s defence capabilities on t of our own needs. Our Strategy can only be complete if it also takes into account Ukraine’s needs and Ukraine’s industrial capacity,” von der Leyen said.

In her words, the first step to achieve this is to invve Ukraine in the consultation process of the Industrial Strategy. This should lead to integrating Ukraine in some of the Eurean defense programmes, with the agreement of the Eurean Parliament and Council, where necessary.

According to von der Leyen, this would not only help the EU to cater for Ukraine’s defense needs but also encourage convergence and joint planning between the militaries and defense industries.

“Ukraine is a future member of our Eurean Union. So it must get much closer to us and much faster. And we should use all our tos to make this happen,” von der Leyen emphasized.

A reminder that, since the Russian full-scale invasion started, the Eurean Union and its Member States have already provided more than EUR 85 billion in pitical, economic, financial, humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.