The leaders of the European Union insist on the earliest possible creation of an investment program to increase production in the EU defense industry against the background of the war in Ukraine.

 This is stated in the draft conclusions of the summit of EU leaders on December 15-16, reports "European Truth" with reference to the Reuters agency.

 "The European Council... calls on the European Commission to quickly submit a proposal for a European Defense Investment Program to strengthen the capacity and resilience of the European defense technology and industrial sector, including small and medium-sized enterprises," reads the draft decision, which the agency saw on Wednesday.

 EU leaders also plan to demand from the European Commission and the European Defense Agency to step up efforts to identify military gaps and coordinate joint defense purchases, in particular, to replenish stocks of material resources depleted in the course of supporting Ukraine.

 The EU has long urged member states to join forces in arms procurement instead of raising prices by competing with each other or making individual deals with suppliers outside the EU.

 According to the draft decision, at the summit in Brussels, EU leaders will also call for the acceleration of the implementation of infrastructure works designed to facilitate the rapid movement of troops across Europe.

 We will remind, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, on the eve of the meeting of the ministers of the NATO member countries, stated that the Alliance countries urgently need to increase the production of weapons, because without investment in weapons, it is impossible to win on the battlefield in the long term.