EU heads of state and government are meeting on Thursday 23 March in Brussels for a spring summit: one of the topics of discussion is the issue of providing Ukraine with ammunition.

According to Tagesschau, at the beginning of the summit, there will be an exchange of views with UN Secretary General António Guterres, and then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join them via video link.

Coordinated supplies of ammunition to Ukraine will also be a topic of the summit, but there are disputes in other areas: the German blockade of the phasing out of internal combustion engines and the reform of the electricity market.

After Russia's attack on Ukraine, not only gas, but also electricity prices skyrocketed. Many EU countries, especially in the south, would prefer to end the linking of prices for electricity and gas. But the European Commission does not want to go that far.

According to the Commission, long-term supply contracts are designed to keep prices stable in the long term. In addition, the European Commission wants to allow EU countries to contribute more generously to the production of cheap energy. For example, investments in "green" electricity, as well as in nuclear energy. For countries such as Portugal or Spain, this is not enough. Others, such as Germany, Finland or the Netherlands, warn of disadvantages and demand that the possible consequences of this reform be carefully studied first.

In addition, they will discuss a new project on the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine and the replenishment of EU stocks.

Among the issues on the agenda for the next two days are the prosecution of those guilty of war crimes, the further strengthening of collective pressure on Russia, the use of frozen assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and global food security.

On 20 March, the Council of the European Union approved a plan to provide Ukraine with one million artillery ammunition for a total amount of EUR 2 billion.

Its purpose, firstly, is to increase the supply of artillery ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine; secondly, the introduction of joint purchases of European states and the acceleration of their pace to replenish their own stocks; thirdly, the rapid expansion of the production capacities of the European defence industry.