Toledo, 30/08/2023 

Check against delivery! 

Buenas tardes, 

Antes que nada, quiero agradecer a la presidencia española del Consejo [de la Unión Europea] por acogernos en esta bellísima ciudad de Toledo - que creo que ha dejado impresionadas a todas las delegaciones - y por la excelente organización de este encuentro. 

Ensuite, je dois exprimer ma pleine solidarité avec la France suite au décès en opération de trois militaires français en Irak. Ils étaient en mission de lutte contre le terrorisme, ils étaient là pour notre sécurité collective. Ils sont tombés sous le feu ennemi. Je présente mes condoléances à la France et aux [forces] armées françaises. 

Je profite de cette occasion pour répéter que notre engagement global contre le terrorisme ne cessera pas.  

Now, let’s go to our Informal meeting [of Defence ministers] that has been very timely with important exchanges on two main topics. 
 
We have been talking about a lot of things - some of them are more practical and others are more political - but certainly the discussion has been focusing on two main topics: Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the situation in Niger and in the wider Sahel, and the security implications that both have for Europeans. 

Ukraine has remained at the centre of our discussions. The Ukrainian Defence Minister, our friend Oleksii Reznikov, has addressed the Council via video message and gave us an update on the situation on the ground, and on the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive.  

After talking with the Defence Minister of Ukraine, we discussed the European short and longer-term  commitments for the security of Ukraine.  

First, let me stress the fact that in spite of global condemnation, Putin does not show any sign of letting up in his aggression against the Ukrainian people. He continues the war and that is why Ukraine needs long-term, sustainable and predictable military support.   

I want also to stress that our continued support is important for the Ukrainian counter-offensive in response to the Russian invasion. If there was not the war waged by Putin on Ukraine, there would not be the need for this kind of support. There are causes and consequences. The cause is Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the consequence is the need to support Ukraine in the short and long term. 

We have discussed our support in three areas.
 
First, on military equipment. I proposed a Ukraine Assistance Fund for the period 2024-2027 to ensure the sustainability of our military assistance. 

This Fund – which would be embedded inside the European Peace Facility - should be a core element of our long-term contribution to the security of Ukraine, as European Leaders agreed in June. I propose a Fund with around €5 billion every year. This should be [seen as] a ceiling, not a spending target. If we could spend less, [it would be] much better, but this should be our ceiling to programme in the medium term our efforts to support Ukraine. 

The Ministers have discussed this topic. It will be also discussed tomorrow with the Foreign Affairs Ministers, and I hope that an agreement can be reached as soon as possible. I hope before the end of this year. 

The second instrument we have been focusing on is the training mission, our EU Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM), [our] training mission for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This mission has had a real impact, and it has been implemented at an unprecedented speed. 
 
This mission has already trained 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers – some of them here, in Toledo, thanks to the Spanish army. [The mission] will reach the objective, which was programmed for the end of the year, at the end of October, [when] we will have reached the 30,000 soldiers trained by this mission.  

You know, I am always saying that “we need to do more and faster”. “More and faster” it is becoming a trending topic. Yes, more and faster. I still think that we have to do more and faster, and I proposed to the Ministers to raise the objective of the mission to 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained [in the coming months].

It is also important to reflect on the evolving needs of the Ukrainian army and working not only on quantity but also on quality. 
 
Ukrainians need more specialised training for smaller groups and for command capacities.

We have welcomed the decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to provide F-16 airplanes to Ukraine. 

And we will explore the possibility of how we can integrate these F-16 pilot training modules inside our mission. Our mission should be also able to contribute to the training of these pilots for these planes.  

The third area [we discussed] was ammunition.  

You know that we have been working under the three-track ammunition initiative. The first one was taking stocks from the European armies – it ended at the end of May. We have taken an important volume of ammunition valued at about €1.1 billion, which corresponds to about 224,000 ammunition rounds and about 2,300 missiles. This is the Track one, which has already been closed because it had a concrete time period.  

Second is the Track two. The European Defence Agency (EDA) has been negotiating over the summer with the European defence industry to procure 155-mm ammunition.  

Three framework contracts have already been signed. Now it is to the Member States to pass concrete orders inside these framework agreements with the industry. We did our work. The agreement with the industry has already been signed [and] now Member States can use this possibility to pass common orders to the industry. 
 
Then, there is Track three, which is more in the hands of the [European] Commission to ramp-up the industrial capacity to produce more military capacities in Europe.  

This is a long-term endeavour, but the industry can only deliver if they have new orders, and they will not deliver if they do not have new orders, in order to increase its supply capacities. 

That is why the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), which was approved by the European Parliament in July – by the way, in a very short time frame - will provide a tool to support our ammunition industry. The [European] Commission will take this work forward.  

This discussion among us showed our strong coordination with NATO. A NATO representative was present at the meeting, together with the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations [Jean-Pierre Lacroix] and a representative of the European Parliament [Natalie Loiseau]. 

We also discussed the negative effects on the food supplies and the energy prices around the world, due to the fact that Putin has not been willing to prolong the [Black Sea] Grain initiative. This was very bad news. It is going to have destabilising effects around the world, and it will – unhappily – also affect us. 

We have to continue providing the means and the ways for the Ukrainian food production to be exported from the country and reach the international markets. 

This brings me to the Sahel region which is strongly dependent on the exports of grain from Ukraine. We discussed with the ministers the coup in Niger and its wider implications. 

You know that the situation is very fluid. I spent my [month of] August in permanent contact with the actors, also with President [of Niger, Mohammed] Bazoum. 

It is clear that the coup in Niger is opening a new era of instability in a region which was already very fragile, and this will undermine the stability of the region. 

The ministers reiterated our will to support African solutions to African problems. And it means that we will support the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). We have expressed this will from the first moment of the coup.  
It is up to them to take initiatives and decisions in order to counter this military coup, and we will follow, trying to implement the same kind of sanctions that they have decided.  

We are moving forward with an autonomous sanctions regime to take measures against the putschists. Work has already started, and tomorrow, the Foreign Affairs ministers will advance on that.  

We will support ECOWAS accordingly with their requests at any circumstances, depending on what the requests are in concrete terms. 

Finally, I will discuss this and our wider diplomatic response in the whole region [with Foreign Ministers tomorrow]. The President of the ECOWAS [Commission, Omar Touray] and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger [Hassoumi Massaoudou] will join us at the [Informal] Foreign Affairs Council meeting. We will have a conversation in person with them.  

I think that is all. Margarita [Robles, Minister for Defence of Spain], thank you for your patience and thank you very for this extraordinary meeting that you have organised. 
 
Q&A 

Q. Ha difundido un video el presidente de Gabón [Ali Bongo] desde su domicilio, pidiendo ayuda al resto de países. No sé si nos pueden decir algo más de cómo está la situación y si se ha estudiado - porque se han cerrado las fronteras - alguna posible evacuación de los ciudadanos europeos que están allí.
 
La situación en Gabón nos ha cogido a todos de sorpresa, esta mañana. Hemos seguido lo que está ocurriendo, pero no estoy al tanto de los últimos acontecimientos. Mis servicios, seguro que lo están haciendo desde Bruselas, [a través de] la célula de crisis. Y naturalmente, haremos con Gabón lo mismo que hemos hecho con Níger y con cualquier otro país donde nuestros ciudadanos necesiten ayuda. Pero de momento, no tengo más información. No le puedo decir. 

Q. High Representative, a question on Niger, please. You said that the European Union will implement whatever ECOWAS asks it to do. Does that mean that if ECOWAS requests financial help for its stand-by intervention force, the European Union will follow that through and give financial support? Right after the coup, you have put the military assistance mission [EUMPM Niger] on hold. You suspended it. It turned out that the military that the European Union wants to build up and support financially – but also militarily with equipment – sided with those that initiated the coup. How would it ever be possible, even if we have a change for the better, to revive this mission given that we have seen how unreliable this partner really is? 

First, what I said and what I wanted to say – thank you for giving me the opportunity for clarification – is that we will consider any request. We have to look, we have to understand what the proposal is, what are the concrete circumstances. We will consider everything. For the time being, we have not gotten any specific request. To do something, we need a lot of details in order to engage, but we will consider. We are ready to consider any proposal and to evaluate it in its own merits.
  
Secondly, thank God all the military support that was scheduled using the resources of the European Peace Facility was committed but was not delivered. We have stopped it, obviously. All the military support, partnership, cooperation with Niger has been stopped. 

As I said, the bulk – the big amount – of resources that were allocated for the European Peace Facility – I think it was more than €70 million – nothing has been delivered. 

On the other hand, you say: “Why do you train armies that later become putschists?” You know, when countries are fighting terrorism and their armed forces ask you to support them, to train their soldiers, and you do that, it is impossible to prevent what is going to happen the day after tomorrow. 

We have to support the armies in the fight against terrorism. Without the European support provided in the last years, maybe some of these countries would not exist anymore. So, nobody can give you the guarantee of what is going to happen in the future, but we have to support legally established governments – which was the case in Niger and in Mali before the coup d'état in both countries. 

Q. High Representative, going back to the three-track initiative for ammunition for Ukraine, according to the numbers that you have given us, you are halfway through the one-year target, but you have reached only about less than a quarter of the number of shells you are aiming to deliver. How concerned are you by that current slow state of progress? Are you looking at potential other ideas to speed up the amount of ammunitions that can be delivered? Is there any specific reaction to the Slovakian proposal to refurbish old shells to increase the number of shells that you can deliver quickly to Ukraine? 

Yes, we are going to consider the Slovak proposal you are mentioning. 
 
I think we have done our work. We have reached out to Member States, [saying] we are ready to co-finance the delivery of your ammunitions taken from your stocks for Ukraine. And the Member States have responded in less than two months, and we have provided the figures I have already said.
  
If the Member States are not in a situation to provide more from their stocks, it is only a stimulus [for them] to increase the production capacity and to do it quicker and better. “Más y más rápido”. I would like to coin these two words. We need to do more and quicker. But do not under evaluate what we have already done. We said that we were going to agree with the industry frameworks for the Member States to go and ask together, and to pass orders all together to the industry. Well, it is done.
  
Now, the Member States will have to decide. 

Thirdly, we have approved in July – against the clock – in the European Parliament, the Act that will allow us to give the financial support to the European industry to ramp-up their capacities. If there is any other possibility, I will consider [it]. This proposal that you mentioned will be considered, but in the end, it is more or less the same thing: to ask the Member States’ armies to provide what they already have and to ask the industry to have stronger capacities, and to ask the Member States to act together in order to reduce the costs and the delivery time. 

Q. En primer lugar, no sé si podría decirnos si ha salido durante la reunión la posibilidad de una misión europea de evacuación de los soldados franceses que permanecen en Níger y si hay algún país – por ejemplo, España que opera en la zona – que ha ofrecido su ayuda. También quería preguntarles si consideran que la muerte del líder del grupo Wagner va a suponer un cambio a favor de Ucrania en su defensa frente a Rusia. 

Estoy seguro de que van a encontrar rápidamente un reemplazante para sustituir al fallecido en un desgraciado accidente al líder del [grupo] Wagner. Por otra parte, los Wagner seguirán siendo operativos en África porque es el brazo armado de Rusia. No pueden enviar a ejércitos regulares porque cantaría demasiado y entonces mandan mercenarios, pero que están absolutamente alineados con el poder político ruso. Los Wagner seguirán en África, seguirán al servicio de Putin y seguirán haciendo lo que hacen, que desde luego no es contribuir a la paz en el Sahel ni a la defensa de las libertades y los derechos de los sahelianos. 

Y sobre una misión para rescatar a las tropas francesas en Níger, no se ha discutido para nada. ¿Sabe usted cuántas tropas francesas hay en Níger? Hay más de 1.000 [soldados]. No, nadie ha planteado ni la necesidad ni la posibilidad. Desde luego, Francia no lo ha planteado. No sabía esa necesidad, pero usted está hablando de palabras mayores que de momento, desde luego, nadie ha puesto nada. 
 
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-245064