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BRUSSELS, May 17 (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed adding 3.5 billion euros ($3.85 billion) to a fund used to finance military aid for Ukraine, EU sources said on Wednesday. It originally had a budget of 5 billion euros, meant to last until 2027. That ceiling has already been raised once, by 2 billion euros, last December. The fund allows EU countries that supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine to claim back a portion of the cost. It was conceived for any conflict that the European Union could deal with."

BRUSSELS, May 12 (Reuters) - Turkey's elections on Sunday are a key moment not just for the country itself but also for its European neighbours. Its internationally recognised government, composed of Greek Cypriots, is an EU member, while the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state is recognised only by Ankara. However, EU officials see little sign that Kilicdaroglu would change much on Cyprus. EU leaders designated Turkey as a candidate to join the bloc in 2004 but the talks ground to a halt years ago. There is already a lot of European money that has made its way to Turkey," said a European diplomat.

☆ Ukraine war will increasingly pit quantity against quality -NATO official
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO's military committee, noted Russia was now deploying significant numbers of T-54 tanks - an old model designed in the years after World War Two. So ... in terms of numbers, quantity, it is an issue," Bauer told reporters after a meeting of the alliance's national military chiefs at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The Ukrainians meanwhile would "focus on quality, with Western weapon systems and Western training. Bauer said the NATO military chiefs restated "unrelenting support" to a Ukrainian representative at the meeting. "There is no doubt that NATO will support Ukraine for as long as it takes," said Bauer, a Dutch military officer.

☆ EU plans to boost ammunition production to aid Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, May 2 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive wants to set aside more than 500 million euros ($550 million) to increase ammunition production to help Ukraine and replenish the stocks of EU member countries. Under a plan to be presented by the European Commission on Wednesday, the EU would give subsidies to European arms firms for investments that increase production of ammunition and missiles. The latest element of the ammunition drive aims to give arms firms incentives to increase their production. It would set aside 500 million euros from the EU budget to part-finance projects that increase capacity. Breton said the EU had a substantial industrial base for the production of ammunition but "it does not have the scale today to meet the security needs of Ukraine and our Member States".

☆ Euro zone grows marginally at start of 2023 after stagnation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, April 28 (Reuters) - The euro zone grew only marginally in the first three months of 2023 and at a rate lower than market expectations after stagnation at the end of last year, preliminary data showed on Friday. Gross domestic product in the euro zone expanded by 0.1% in the first quarter, below expectations in a Reuters poll for 0.2% growth. That compared with zero growth in the previous quarter for the current 20-nation euro zone and a quarterly decline of 0.1% for the 19 countries that were in the euro zone at that point. Among the bloc's biggest countries, Germany registered no growth after contraction in the final quarter of 2022. The European Commission is forecasting that the euro zone will expand by 0.9% this year and by 1.5% next.

☆ Deal reached in principle to resume Ukraine grain transit with 5 EU countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationBRUSSELS, April 28 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Friday it had reached a deal in principle to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain to resume through five European Union countries that had imposed restrictions. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted that the EU executive had reached "an agreement in principle" with the five countries "to address concerns of both farmers in neighbouring EU countries and Ukraine". The deal also includes a support package worth 100 million euros ($110.25 million) for local farmers, Dombrovskis said. The five countries became transit routes for Ukrainian grain that could not be exported through the country's Black Sea ports because of Russia's February 2022 invasion. Bottlenecks then trapped millions of tons of grains in countries bordering Ukraine, forcing local farmers to compete with an influx of cheap Ukrainian imports that they said distorted prices and demand.

☆ EU ministers braced for Ukrainian frustration over ammunition plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Andrew Gray | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

loading"The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating," Kuleba said on Thursday. Kuleba can make his case directly when he discusses the state of the war and Ukraine's needs by video link to a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers, taking place in Luxembourg. EU officials pushed back against Kuleba's criticism by stressing that this fast track is up and running so ammunition is already flowing to Kyiv. But the second track, worth another 1 billion euros to fund joint procurement, has yet to be finalised. EU officials and diplomats said they expected an agreement that would satisfy all sides in the coming days.

LUXEMBOURG, April 24 (Reuters) - Recent remarks by China's ambassador to France questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine are totally unacceptable, several EU foreign ministers said before a meeting on Monday. "It is totally unacceptable", Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said ahead of the Luxembourg meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers. It was unclear when Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the EU, gave the interview to the Chinese news outlet The Paper. But its publication came hard on the heels of the remarks by China's ambassador to France. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he disagreed with Lu's comments, while Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn called Lu's remarks a "blunder" and said efforts were being made to calm things down.

As a result, the stakes of the inaugural trip by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have risen, with many EU members hoping Berlin will use this opportunity to set out a clear and united EU line on China, analysts said. Baerbock must now make Germany's position on Taiwan clear during her visit, German foreign policy parliamentarian Nils Schmid told Reuters, adding Macron's remarks had destroyed a hoped-for impetus for a common European China policy. The foreign minister is due to meet her counterpart Qin Gang and China's top diplomat Wang Yi on the two-day trip. Europe's view of China as partner, competitor and systemic rival is the compass of its policy, she added. "More von der Leyen than Macron should be her guideline," conservative foreign policy lawmaker Johann Wadephul, who will join Baerbock on her trip, told Reuters.

☆ Estonia PM focused on defence spending and same sex marriage law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Andrius Sytas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks to the media as she attends the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium March 23, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna GeronTALLINN, April 12 (Reuters) - Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday she was focused on her next term as Estonian prime minister despite media speculation she could be in the running to lead NATO, with plans including legalising same sex marriage and increasing defence spending. Taxes will be raised to fund the spending in a time of economic contraction, Kallas has said. The new government will also legislate same sex marriage equality "as fast as possible", Kallas said, becoming the first Central European country to do so. I'm the prime minister of Estonia, and I try to solve all the problems that we have here."

[1/4] Chinese President Xi Jinping and France's President Emmanuel Macron meet at the Guandong province governor's residence, in Guangzhou, China, Friday, April 7, 2023. Macron's comments came in an interview on a trip to China that was meant to showcase European unity on China policy, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also taking part, but highlighted differences within the European Union. A senior diplomat from Central and Eastern Europe, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "President Macron is not speaking for Europe or the European Union. The French foreign ministry cancelled a planned debrief on the trip for foreign diplomats in Paris on Tuesday as officials scrambled to make sure they had a consistent message and to limit any fallout with Washington. But even some of those broadly supportive of Macron's agenda lamented the handling of the China trip, in which von der Leyen received a much more muted welcome than the French president.

The most immediate part of the plan earmarked 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) to refund EU countries for sending urgently needed artillery shells from stockpiles to Ukraine. In announcing the package, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the munitions would come from "European industry and from Norway". Draft legislation agreed by ambassadors from EU countries, seen by Reuters, used the same formulation. Diplomats and officials expressed confidence that EU countries would finalise a deal after the Easter break. European financing must serve to buy European," the official said.

☆ Russia's Belarus nuclear threat shows "empty promises" of China statement: Stoltenberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, April 5 (Reuters) - Russia's announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to "empty promises", NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said this showed such statements are "empty promises and what we need to watch closely is what Russia is doing." Stoltenberg said NATO had not seen any signs so far that Russia was following through on Putin's announcement. Also at his news conference, Stoltenberg reiterated his call for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last Thursday in Russia.

HELSINKI/BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters) - Finland will become a member of NATO on Tuesday, completing a historic security policy shift triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while neighbour Sweden is kept in the waiting room. "It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday. Sweden underwent a similar transformation in defence thinking and Stockholm and Helsinki applied together last year to join NATO. Moscow said on Monday it would strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions in response to Finland joining NATO. Stoltenberg said he was "absolutely confident" that Sweden will become a NATO member.

The EU has slapped 10 rounds of sanctions on Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but hundreds of millions of euros worth of trade with Russia's nuclear energy industry has not been directly affected. All EU countries must agree for the bloc to impose sanctions and Budapest - where Rosatom is to expand the Paks nuclear power plant - has vowed to oppose any curbs on the Russian nuclear energy industry. It was not clear when the EU would impose any new sanctions on Russia. EU nuclear agency Euratom said Russia provided a fifth of the uranium used by EU utilities in 2021, the latest data available, as well as a fourth of conversion and a third of enrichment services. “The future dependence on Russia in the nuclear fuel cycle depends on investment in the ‘global West’,” Euratom told Reuters.

☆ Ukraine's tech entrepreneurs fight war on a different front
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Michael Kahn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

It's an example of how some startups in Ukraine's dynamic tech sector are switching to pursue military projects. Pavlo Kartashov, director of the Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF), a government-backed organization that seeds technology startups, told Reuters his group resumed funding in October. Demand from the government has driven the shift to military technology, but most of the entrepreneurs who spoke to Reuters said that patriotic duty also played a role. "There are much more ideas in military technology," said Krasovsky, the founder and chief executive of Swedish-Ukrainian Sigma Software Group. Groups like the Polish-Ukrainian Start Up Bridge - a Polish-government backed venture - offer emerging Ukrainian tech companies small grants to fund basic business needs and a co-working space in Warsaw.

☆ Finland will join NATO on Tuesday - Stoltenberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium April 3, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna GeronBRUSSELS, April 3 (Reuters) - Finland will join NATO on Tuesday, a step that will make Finland safer and the alliance stronger, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. "We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole," he told reporters in Brussels. Reporting by Sudip Kar Gupta, Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member of NATO making Finland safer and our alliance stronger," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, hailing the move as "historic". Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year pushed Finland and its neighbour Sweden to apply for NATO membership, abandoning decades of military non-alignment. [1/2] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium April 3, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna Geron 1 2"President Putin went to war against Ukraine with the clear aim to get less NATO," Stoltenberg said. Stoltenberg pledged to work hard to get Sweden into NATO as soon as possible.

☆ Factbox: Steps in Finnish, Swedish path to NATO membership
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Hungary's parliament approved a bill this week to allow Finland to join NATO after Erdogan declared Turkey was ready to approve that bid. Turkey's parliament is expected to follow through on Erdogan's commitment with a vote this week, clearing the way for Finland to join NATO within weeks. Here are the key steps in Finland's and Sweden's path towards NATO membership so far:FINLAND AND SWEDEN SUBMIT MEMBERSHIP REQUESTThe applications, letters signed by the countries' foreign ministers, were formally handed in by Finland's and Sweden's NATO ambassadors on May 18, 2022. FINLAND FORGES AHEADAll NATO countries must ratify a would-be member's application before it can join the alliance. But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said getting Sweden's application over the line is a top priority.

That will be discussed over lunch with Guterres before the U.N. secretary-general takes his leave and EU leaders get an update on the war from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link, officials said. "We will, as always, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine," declared Charles Michel, president of the European Council of EU leaders. Diplomats involved in preparing the summit of the 27 national EU leaders were sceptical of an imminent breakthrough. AMMUNITIONBeyond food security and sanctions, the leaders will also discuss bringing those responsible for the 13-month war to justice, as well as providing more military aid to Ukraine. "We will need to take measures to boost the manufacturing capacity of the European defence industry," Michel said in his letter inviting fellow EU leaders to the summit.

BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - European Union countries on Monday agreed a 2 billion euro plan to send 1 million artillery rounds to Ukraine over the next year by digging into their own stockpiles and teaming up to buy more shells. The joint procurement will be limited to companies from the EU and Norway, which has close economic ties to the bloc. Some EU governments wanted the initiative to be open to a broader market, arguing this would help get munitions more quickly to Ukraine. But others said EU money should go to EU companies and insisted they would have capacity to meet demand. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, whose country is taking part in the joint procurement initiative, described it as "new territory" for the EU.

☆ EU to move towards joint buying of shells for Ukraine, says official
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] 155mm artillery shells are seen during the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S., February 16, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidBRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) - A number of European Union countries are expected to sign a "Project Arrangement" on joint procurement of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine on Monday, a senior EU official said on Friday. "(The Project Arrangement) is the basis for the European Defense Agency and its member states to move on, ... basically the terms of reference that are the legal basis to move on." The official could not confirm how many countries would sign, but said they were "quite confident to see many signatures on Monday", adding the project was open to all EU members plus Norway and countries would be able to join it at any time. Reporting by Andrew Gray and Bart Meijer; Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Investigations are ongoing as to what caused the Nord Stream pipelines, supplying Russian energy to Europe, to rupture and spew bubbles of natural gas into the Baltic Sea last September. "We have to make a clear distinction whether it was a Ukrainian group, whether it may have happened at Ukrainian orders, or a pro-Ukrainian group (acting) without knowledge of the government. Pistorius said earlier the likelihood was "equally high" that it could have been a "false flag operation staged to blame Ukraine". UKRAINE PLAYS DOWN CONCERNSThe New York Times said there was no evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy or other Ukrainian government officials had played any role in the attacks. U.S. officials said no American or British nationals were involved," according to the New York Times report.

☆ EU releases funds, prepares aid flight for eastern Congo
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - The European Union said on Saturday it is releasing over 47 million euros ($49.97 million) for humanitarian aid for Congo's North Kivu and plans to send a flight with medical supplies and food to the conflict-stricken eastern province. “The EU stands ready to mobilise all the necessary means to support humanitarian workers, including logistics and air, to meet the needs of the population in Democratic Republic of Congo," European Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said. The flight will head to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and deliver aid including medical and nutritional supplies, the statement said. The funds will "be channelled through humanitarian partners to cover immediate needs such as nutrition, healthcare, water and sanitation, shelter and protection", the EU said. ($1 = 0.9406 euros)Reporting by Andrew Gray Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

He also declared he will not sign anything that recognises Kosovo "formally or informally" and would never agree to its membership of the United Nations. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after war brought an end to Serbian rule. While Vucic says he will not even "informally" recognise Kosovo, such a definition is ultimately a matter of interpretation. A senior EU official said an overall deal would be final only "when we also know exactly how it will be implemented - within what timelines, by whom". The official said the two sides had made significant progress but "the last mile is always the most difficult".

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