France is pushing its defense industry to speed up the production of the equipment Ukraine needs. At the same time, the country's government even threatened to use special powers against those who, in its opinion, are lagging behind the schedule.
According to Bloomberg, with the help of these measures, the state can gain control over certain assets of defense companies or even make decisions instead of their management.
“For the first time, I do not exclude the use of what is allowed by law. This means that in in case of delays in proceedings, it is necessary to use applications or the right to determine the priority of orders”, — Minister of Defense Sebastian Lecornu told journalists.
He noted that France's military planning allows the requisitioning of personnel and production facilities of companies working in the defense sector. As an example, the minister mentioned the delays in the production of 200 Aster missiles for SAMP/T air defense systems. increasing the production of 155-mm shells, if necessary,” — emphasized Lecorne and added that it has already become obvious that Russia poses a threat to France.
The publication notes that although French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to rally allies around the aid of the Armed Forces, other countries often criticize him for that Paris does not transfer the same amount of military aid as other countries do.
According to the reports of the University of Kiel, which monitors the aid provided to Ukraine, France transferred 640 million euros worth of equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For comparison, even “small” Estonia and Lithuania allocated 890 and 820 million, respectively, for these purposes, and the aid of the same Germany is generally estimated at 17.7 billion euros.