Today, the European Commission has adopted the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), a proposal for a Regulation to support the European Union’s industry in ramping-up its production capacities in ammunition and missiles.
The Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) is a direct response to the Council’s call to urgently deliver ammunition, and if requested missiles, to Ukraine and to help Member States refill their stocks by introducing targeted measures. The Act aims at ensuring that the EU can ramp up its production capacity.
This Regulation aims at strengthening the responsiveness and ability of the EU defence industry to ensure the timely supply of ammunition and missiles in Europe. The framework laid down by this new Regulation will include:
- a mechanism to map, monitor and better anticipate the existence of bottlenecks in the supply chains;
- an instrument to financially support the reinforcement of the European Union’s industrial production capacities;
- the introduction of a temporary regulatory framework to address the ammunition supply crisis.
Identify, monitor, and anticipate bottlenecks and shortages in the supply chains
This Regulation will ensure the necessary information gathering at EU level and enable the Commission and Member States to anticipate shortages affecting the security of the supply of ammunition and missiles.
To this end, the Commission will conduct a mapping exercise to identify and continuously monitor the availability of ammunition and missiles as well as their components and their corresponding inputs. This exercise will better inform the use of financial support and regulatory measures.
Provide financial support to produce more and faster
The proposed Regulation also includes measures to support the industrial reinforcement throughout the supply chains of ammunition and missiles in the EU. Financial support will be provided in the form of grants to various types of actions contributing to the efforts of the European defence industry to increase their production capacities and tackle identified bottlenecks.
Next Steps
Responding to the urgency of the situation, within 5 weeks of the agreement on the three-track approach in the Council of the European Union, the Commission has adopted the proposal for a Regulation as a matter of high priority and will transmit it to the co-legislators. The Commission counts on the swiftest adoption possible in order to be able to initiate support for a ramp-up of the EU’s defence industry production capacities of ammunition and missiles.
More information
- Regulation Text:
Details
- Publication date
- 3 May 2023