EU industry’s potential to produce 155mm ammunition remains significant, says EU Commissioner

The potential of EU industry to produce 155-millimetre ammunition remains significant,

Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness said on behalf of High Representative Josep Borrell at the European Parliament Plenary on 15 March.

Earlier, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov had informed the EU that Ukraine urgently needed a stable supply of 155mm artillery ammunition.

“We need to unlock this potential. Signing large contracts, consolidated at European level, will send the appropriate signal to industry to take action. But this is not a guarantee of delivery on time,” said McGuinness. “Our industrial objectives are clear: reduce production time and increase production volumes. And above all: secure the earliest possible availability of the required volumes”.

The Commissioner also said that the EU Defence Joint Procurement Task Force has established an industrial mapping of ammunition production capacities, particularly for artillery shells, and has identified 15 producers in 11 Member States. He added that Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton has already started to visit each of the 15 companies identified by the Task Force, “to discuss with them directly and understand their constraints and to see how to help them increase their production capacity”.

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