NATO has approved a 27 billion euro programme to modernise its fuel storage and distribution network, including new pipelines in the eastern and south eastern parts of the alliance, alongside a five-year common funding plan, the alliance stated.
The North Atlantic Council took both decisions on Wednesday 22 July. The Fuel Supply Chain Capability Programme Plan covers upgrades to existing infrastructure and the construction of new facilities, which NATO says will ensure forces have the energy supplies needed for warfighting readiness.
Separately, the Council approved the 2027 to 2031 Common Funding Resource Plan, setting out how the alliance will invest in shared priorities over the next five years. Allies agreed funding ceilings for 2027 covering the Military Budget, the Civil Budget and the Security Investment Programme, raising total common funding to up to 6.5 billion euros. According to NATO, the plan is intended to give allies a forward-looking picture of expected resource needs and to keep common funding in step with the alliance’s increased level of ambition.
The plan also carries resources for priority support to Ukraine, covering the NATO Security Assistance and Training to Ukraine initiative and the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre.
Common funding is the smaller portion of what allies spend on defence, accounting for a fraction of a per cent of members’ combined defence expenditure. It pays for capabilities and infrastructure held in common rather than nationally, including alliance command structures, the airborne early warning fleet, communications systems and airfields, and is divided between the three budget lines approved this week. Contributions are set by a cost share formula based broadly on gross national income, with the United States and Germany historically the largest contributors.
Moving fuel eastward has consequently become one of the harder logistical problems facing NATO planners. Bulk fuel arriving at Atlantic and North Sea ports must currently travel by rail and road for the last stretch to Poland, the Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria, a dependence that exercises have repeatedly identified as a constraint on how quickly and how heavily the alliance can reinforce its eastern flank. Military mobility more broadly, covering bridges, rail gauges, tunnel clearances and customs procedures, has been a recurring theme in alliance and European Union work since 2022.
The scale of the fuel programme places it among the largest single infrastructure commitments NATO has made through common funding.
