The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, wants to call on the EU countries to supply modern tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine “needs weapons to fight to reclaim its territory,” which “could be, for example, Leopard 2 tanks that have multiple member states,” Metsola told AFP on Wednesday. She wants to propose this to the heads of state and government of the EU countries at their meeting in Prague on Friday.
According to an EU official, around 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks are in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Spain and other EU countries, as well as non-EU countries Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.
Parliament Speaker Metsola suggested that European countries wanting to supply tanks of this type could be compensated from common EU funds. Thus, possible tank deliveries “would not militarily affect one member state more than another”. “These are discussions that we need to have now, especially as we see how Russia is escalating,” Metsola said. “But also when we see on the other side that Ukraine is successfully pushing back the Russians,” added the Maltese.
Metsola announced that it would also call on member states at the informal summit in Prague to adopt an “accelerated procedure” for Ukraine’s EU accession. In June, the European Union granted Ukraine EU candidate status It will take many years because there are many requirements that must be met. Metsola also did not want to set a deadline for admission during the talks. However, she saw “major progress” in aligning the laws in force in Ukraine with the laws of the European Union , Metsola stressed.
The EU Parliament President from the conservative EPP group was the first chairperson of the EU institutions to travel to the capital Kyiv in April after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.