We need to strengthen Europe's defence capacity, says EU Commissioner Thierry Breton

The EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, is visiting Bulgaria on a mission to negotiate ammunition for Ukraine.

Breton's latest meeting with representatives of the defence industry in Bulgaria was in the industrial military manufacturer, VMZ Sopot. Thierry Breton's visited several ammunition workshops, but has no interest in certain artillery shells, but is interested in the production possibilities and capacity available to our military-industrial complex.

Bulgaria is the first country with which the European Commissioner for Internal Market,Thierry Breton, has started his tour to explore the possibilities of implementing the European plan to increase the production of arms and ammunition in the Community. The plan foresees European aid for 15 arms companies in 11 Member States.

"Last week, we had a very important meeting with the Minister of Defence in Stockholm and with my colleague Josep Borrell. We discussed the need to increase the capacity of Europe's defence industry, to increase the amount of munitions, to strengthen security. In order to achieve this, we decided that we could propose some contract for the defence industry and it has to be made sure that the industry would be able to deliver on that contract. There are many needs in recent days, especially in Europe, and we need to increase capacity. We have decided to visit countries the defence industry of which is willing to increase its capacity. We started from Bulgaria, which has a tradition and a rich history in this field and you are a very important partner for Europe," said Breton.

Thierry Breton pointed out that there are no specific requirements for countries to produce specific weapons and ammunition. This will be in line with their capacity. If all NATO and EU member states increase their defence budgets to 2% of GDP, this will significantly increase the impact of the new deals, Breton added.

In the visit to the VMZ Sopot plant, he was accompanied by caretaker Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov.

"During the meeting, it was commented on increasing the capacity of our defence industry to produce more ammunition, which is needed to replenish stocks. As you know, the stocks of certain ammunition of EU member states, including NATO, are running low, so it is necessary to produce more ammunition," the minister explained.

Thierry Breton also said that uder the Plan, significant funds will be allocated to the countries, which will increase the capacity and capabilities of the arms industry in Europe in the long term. An important point during the meeting was the increase in ammunition production needed to replenish stocks.

The additional funds that Europe is making available will be used to modernise the military industrial complex as well as to secure the supply of weapons and systems to NATO standards.