STRASBOURG — European parliamentarians overwhelmingly backed a move to speed up legislation to boost the manufacture of 1 million rounds of ammunition for Ukraine.
At a vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday, 618 MEPs voted in favor of speeding up work on the so-called Act in Support of Ammunition Production, known as ASAP, which would support industry in ramping up ammo production to 1 million rounds a year with a budget of €500 million. Just 59 lawmakers voted against, with 31 abstaining.
The center-right European People’s Party group proposed that Parliament should bypass normal deliberations in parliamentary committees in order to allow a final vote on ASAP to take place in Parliament as soon as the end of this month in Brussels.
“We hope things go as quickly as possible,” the Renew Europe group’s French leader Stéphane Séjourné told reporters in Strasbourg.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, the proposal to trigger a special quick procedure came from the EPP — as first reported by POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook. Other groups such as liberal Renew Europe, the Greens and the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists voiced their support, as well.
After the Parliament’s vote, MEPs will have to reach an agreement with national governments and the European Commission in order to make the act official.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, one of the leading figures behind the bill, tweeted after the vote: “We are ready to work with co-legislators to find an agreement urgently.”
At a debate Tuesday, EPP chief Manfred Weber traded barbs with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz over Germany’s support to Ukraine’s army.
Weber said: “It seems many people in Berlin don’t believe in the military victory of Ukraine, and now after months of debate the tanks are being delivered.”
“Many positions your government comes to, come too late and have too little ambition,” he jabbed at Scholz.
Scholz fired back that his country has been “at the vanguard” of supplying Ukraine with weapons.
He told MEPs, “There are those amongst you who have, I think, forgotten exactly what the reality is: Germany has supplied a large number of weapons, and will continue to do so. And we have been decisive in deciding to send battle tanks.”
Left-wing MEPs criticized the ASAP proposal as giving undeserved subsidies to the arms industry. Belgian Left MEP Marc Botenga said in a statement: “Rather than transforming Europe into a ‘war economy,’ we need social investment. Let’s launch an ambitious diplomatic initiative based on the respect of international law, in order to put an end to the atrocious war in Ukraine.”
