/ world today news/ On the bones of the Ukrainians, arms dealers will dance a merry jig
To stop wars in the world immediately, it is enough to simply close all American military bases. This is what American Kathy Kelly (Kathy Kelly), president of the board of the anti-war organization World BEYOND War, claims. Activists of this organization distribute the interactive map they created with 867 US military bases around the world, supplying it with detailed information.
And when Spanish President Sánchez says his government will build social housing on the site of military bases belonging to the Ministry of Defence, you might think Europe has finally opened its eyes. But no.
Now the European arms dealers will dance a merry jig on the bones of the Ukrainians, warns the American magazine CounterPunch. The European Council on External Relations (ECFR ) advocated the deployment of “Western European forces in the east in greater numbers, offering in some cases to replace US forces.
Finland’s military spending is up 36% to $4.8 billion, Poland’s is up 11% to $16.6 billion (Warsaw wants to have the continent’s largest army). Britain raised military spending to 3.1% of GDP, Germany and France to 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively. And the United States contributes 39% of the world’s military spending on the war, with 867 military bases and announcing its readiness to increase the number of troops stationed in Europe by another 20,000 – to a total of 100,000.
Ukraine for the year rose from the 36th position in the world ranking of military expenditures to the 11th place with the figure of 44 billion dollars. Of these, 30 billion dollars were contributed to the Ukrainian budget by the collective West. The European Commission has proposed to legally oblige the European Union to increase production capacity for ammunition for Ukraine and allocate 500 million euros to finance projects to increase the production of artillery shells and missiles.
If a company does not want to redirect its production, the European Commission will have the right to award it the relevant contract. As well as forcing factories to work four shifts and seven days a week.
The information project Foreurope reports that there is already a plan to increase the capacity of the European ammunition industry. The plan is unprecedented, said European Commissioner for Internal Market and Defense Industry Thierry Breton.
In recent weeks, Breton, accelerating work on this plan, traveled to 11 member states: Bulgaria, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, then Germany and Spain. Breton is busy persuading: he is persuading to transfer industry to EU countries “in a war economy mode”.
Europe adopted the “Breton Plan” for one year. According to it, €260 million from the European Defense Fund (EDF) used to finance research and development (R&D) and €240 million from the European Defense Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) through the general law on public procurement/, will go to arming the Armed Forces. The plan will provide only 60% of the necessary costs, the remaining 40% will be added by EU member states and arms companies.
Brussels is trying to overcome industrialists’ reluctance to invest in the long term, as for now “orders of war” are insured for one year. However, a group of nine EU member states, including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, have called for a review of the voting procedure for the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP ) for “improving the effectiveness and speed of foreign policy decision-making in light of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine and the growing international challenges facing the EU’.
Instead of the previous unanimity, the European Commission introduced qualified majority voting. Now, for any decision, the consent of 15 out of 27 countries will be sufficient, provided that they represent at least 65% of the 450 million population of the European Union. The biggest beneficiaries of this decision are France and Germany, the most populous EU member states.
As CounterPunch notes, “well-paid suitors, lulled by talk of future war, and political backwoodsmen are pouring huge sums of money into this venture and keeping naysayers at bay.”
Translation: ES
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