Check against delivery! 

Good afternoon. Sorry for being late, but you know that the Council never finishes on time. 

The work has not stopped. It has been the summer break, but I can tell you that the work and the international affairs, and especially in the Eastern front – the war against Ukraine - has not stopped.  

Today, [we are] back to office. [With] the Defence Ministers, we discussed the developments in our security and defence policy, mainly in light of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.  

This has to be considered also from the point of view of its impact on [the] global security environment, with different hotspots around the world, mechanisms to move forward with joint procurement of our defence capabilities and finally, our concrete and practical support to Ukraine for their soldiers to continue their fight against the Russian invader. The Ukrainian Defence Minister, Mr [Oleksii] Reznikov joined us by videoconference and updated us on the latest developments on the ground and on the most urgent needs of the Ukrainian army and [their] priorities. 

We have to respond to these needs and we unanimously agreed on this. The European Union stands united in support of Ukraine and the Member States remain ready to continue supporting [Ukraine] as long and as much as needed. 

But [the] needs do not only concern re-supply in terms of military equipment. And on that, during the summer, the figures that we have and that our military staff has provided to us, show [there] has been continuous flow of military support. 

I read some news about a decrease on that - not at all. The figures show that, during the summer, the support and flow of military equipment to Ukraine has continued and even increased. 

But they need also to regenerate their forces. It is not just warfare. It is also about how the war is conducted, the training of the soldiers, the training of the military structure. There are many training initiatives underway, but the needs are enormous. And we need to ensure the coherence of these efforts. 

I can say that all the Member States agree clearly on that and on launching the work necessary to define the parameters for an EU Military Assistance Mission for Ukraine. 

I am not saying that this was decided today. In any case, this is an informal Council [of Defence Ministers] and the informal Council does not take decisions. So, it is not a matter of taking a decision but [of] deciding to do the preparatory work, which includes certainly the contacts with the Ukrainians, on one side, and to define the legal and operational parameters, on the other side, in order to define a Crisis Management Concept that could lead to a decision on that. 

But it is clear that we need to be quick and ambitious, [to] demonstrate added value, flexibility, once again based on the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.  And that is why today the Defence Minister of Ukraine has explained to us a list of activities – training activities at different levels, at different time horizons (short, medium, and long term) - that they need. Some Member States recalled that, even before the war, they were proposing to take this kind of initiative, especially on the high-level military education and not only the training of soldiers. 

So, we will swiftly take this work forward in close coordination with Member States, with our technical bodies, and with Ukraine mainly, and other international partners. 

We also discussed the global consequences of Russia´s invasion, together with representatives from the United Nations, NATO, and the European Parliament. 

Globally, and in particular our partners in the South, we are feeling the spill over effects of Russia’s weaponisation of food supplies, of grain exports as well as energy supplies. And we are facing – not only us, the whole world is - significant financial burdens resulting from the spiralling inflation and debt.  

That is why, we are so glad to see that the Black Sea grain agreement works so far. Congratulations again to the United Nations and thanks to Turkey. The first shipment has arrived in Djibouti today. The Horn of Africa needs desperately grains from Ukraine. Millions of people are in a dire situation because these grains have been blocked until now. And we have to continue monitoring closely the implementation of this very important agreement.  

On this crucial issue, we have been working closely with the United Nations, who has been playing an absolutely key diplomatic role in facilitating talks.  

NATO is also part of the discussion. Our political unity is rock-solid, and our efforts are closely coordinated and mutually complementary. Since the first day of the Russian invasion, the European Union and NATO have been standing and working together in support of Ukraine. The transatlantic link has shown to be stronger than ever. Once again, multilateralism and transatlantic unity are our greatest asset to respond to the challenges posed by the Russian aggression against Ukraine.  

But the security challenges are not just about Ukraine. It is not just about the war that Putin launched against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. There are other scenarios.  

We have already talked about Mali and the Central African Republic, where Russia is increasing its negative influence through the Wagner group, that has led to human rights abuses, plundering of resources and further insecurity. Russian mercenaries are posing a direct threat for the people in these two countries.  

We also work together in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Operation ALTHEA continues to play a key role for the stability and the security in the country, in the Western Balkans, which has a European perspective but is facing a lot of problems. We have been working during the summer on trying to avoid a new crisis between Kosovo and Serbia, and I am very happy that these talks have been fruitful also. The role of Operation ALTHEA is becoming more and more important in view of the ongoing political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the regional tensions are being fuelled by foreign interference.  

Our commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue. 

Finally - if I can say finally, because these kinds of discussions never finish - we held an interesting exchange of views on how to boost our defence industrial capacities. You cannot talk about defence without talking about the defence industry and how to address capabilities and leveraging our economies of scale. 

Based on the proposals that I, together with President [of the European Commission Ursula] von der Leyen, the European leaders called to make progress on fostering joint procurement and helping the European defence industry to ramp up their production capacities. It is going to be an increase in defence expenditures. It is going to be an increase in the demand of the defence industry. The defence industry has to ramp up its capacities in order to provide what the European armies will ask for.  

We are working on that with Commissioner [for the Internal Market, Thierry] Breton, who was present during our meeting. 

For that, we have set up a Task Force to support Member States and coordinate their very short-term needs in order to refill their stocks of arms. As you know, the [European] Commission will provide, from the European budget, €500 million for the next two years in order to incentivise the joint procurement of the European armies. 

Thank you to the Czech Presidency to continue to support us in our efforts to get a swift and ambitious agreement in the Council about how to use these resources, and after [that] with the European Parliament. I know it is not an easy task. It will require time and efforts to start delivering concrete results.  

But I think that all Ministers were very much aware that we are taking concrete and historical actions to ensure that the increases in defence spending will result also in an increase of a more efficient spending. It is not only about spending more, [but also] about spending better. And in order to spend better, the best way is to spend more together. This means joint, collaborative spending, and that is why we started this system of joint procurement.  

Minister [for Defence of the Czech Republic, Jana Černochová], thank you very much for your hospitality. And thank you to all of you for your attention. 

Q&A 

Q. [in Czech] About the supplies for Ukraine, we heard that the countries which helped Ukraine are beginning to have problems. They are struggling to guaranteeing their own security if they continue to help Ukraine I this way. What about other member states? Was this a subject that came up in today’s meeting? Was there any discussion on what other countries could do? 

The answer goes more or less in the same direction. You have to make the difference between the European Union’s efforts in supporting Ukraine – where all Member States participate according with their GNI, according to their economic size. And this is the European Peace Facility that has provided €2.5 billion until now. But this is a collective effort. And then, you have to add up what each Member State does on their own. There, the differences are important. Certainly, some are doing more than others. But it is done on a voluntary basis. It has nothing to do with a decision of the European Union nor with the use of European funding. Each Member State, using its sovereignty, its decision-making process, provides arms to Ukraine. I can tell you about the European Peace Facility. 

Q. High Representative, two questions to you. The first one: could you please make the point. What exactly would be the added value of an EU-led training mission as opposed to the existing ones of the different Members States who are already working with Ukrainian soldiers, training them? And the second question: you just mentioned the EPF, the European Peace Facility. At the current speed of spending or pledging in support of Ukraine, it will be empty by next Spring. So what should happen afterwards? What is your suggestion to Member states? 

We will have to take a decision before next Spring. Let’s take care of the everyday problems. Today, the problem was not the future of the European Peace Facility. The European Peace Facility has a budget of €5.7 billion so we are far from exhausting it. This is about the European Peace Facility. 

About the content of the mission, it is clear that some training activities that have been done by some Member States, are well done at the level of Member States. 

For example, if France provides certain types of guns, they provide [the] training. And they do it better than anyone else who can provide training, because it is their guns. But there are several processes in order to make an army work, which are related to the whole functioning of a complex body like an army. And the Defence Minister of Ukraine has been explaining in the short-term what they need, in the medium term what they need, in the long term what they need. And some of the needs they explained to us today, I am sure, could be better provided, pulling the capacities of the Member States together and looking for the specialities of each one of them: [e.g.,] a high-level training, organising logistics, organising military health, providing protection against nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

Well, that cannot be solved overnight, but we have to put the basis of an army who has to fight and will have to fight for quite a long time. This is something that I am convinced - and I think most of the Member States agreed - that can be done better using our resources and pulling our capacities. And that is what we are going to [look at] precisely, to study, together with the Ukrainians and the Member States in order to identify the concrete parameters that can be part of this mission. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-229217