Affairs agenda: Two new rail lines in Tunis, Norway’s latest battle tank procurement and European ammunition production
Defence: Europe
Ticking time bomb
During the years of relative peace that followed the end of the Cold War, Europe’s ammunition stockpiles atrophied. When the continent scrambled to send materiel to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, it found that its shelves were almost bare. Moscow is now churning out almost three million artillery shells annually, about three times the combined output of Europe and the US. But Europe’s problem runs deeper than output. The continent manufactures almost no TNT, a widely used component of high-grade military explosives. One of the few domestic producers, Poland’s Nitro-Chem, is prioritising the country’s own armed forces, which are expanding, as well as highly lucrative international orders, such as one signed to supply the US military between 2027 and 2029.
Other continental TNT makers are stepping up. In Sweden, arms producer Swebal is setting up a TNT plant west of Stockholm with the stated aim of helping to boost Nato’s resilience. Meanwhile, in Finland, Forcit is investing more than €200m in a TNT facility on the country’s west coast. Finland’s defence minister, Antti Hakkanen, calls the project is of “major importance for increasing European ammunition production” and key to maintaining support for Ukraine.
Necessary for this push is the €150bn in loans proposed by the European Commission (EC) as part of the ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 initiative presented in March, which offers up to €800bn in defence spending. In April, the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously opposed the EC’s attempt to fast-track the plan without full parliamentary oversight. But can Brussels afford to take its time, when securing components such as tnt is essential to providing the weaponry that Europe needs to stay secure? If production doesn’t increase, the continent’s rearmament plan could blow up in its face.
In the basket
Bang for your buck
In the basket: 24 K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers
Who’s buying: Norway
Who’s selling: South Korea
Price: €470m
Estimated delivery date: 2026 or 2027
This is a repeat purchase for Norway, which previously took delivery of 28 K9s and 14 K10 ammunition resupply vehicles to keep their barrels fed with 155mm shells. As Europe has set about rearming, the K9 has done excellent business for South Korean company Hanwha Aerospace. Other customers include Estonia, Finland, Poland and Romania. There is little doubt about the K9’s purpose for Norway: to deter Russia from getting any funny ideas about the High North land border that the two countries share. The K9 has tremendous mobility and has already proven itself in cold conditions; India’s army has deployed them in the freezing heights of Ladakh on the Chinese border. And they work where it counts too: Ukraine has used Polish-supplied Krab howitzers, which feature a K9 chassis and a 52-calibre gun made by bae Systems.
Politics: Athens
Q&A
Haris Doukas
Mayor of Athens
When Haris Doukas was picked as centre-left party Pasok’s candidate for Athens’ 2023 mayoral election, he was a political unknown. The 45-year-old won on an ecological platform centred on lowering temperatures in the city. Monocle sat down with Doukas at the Mipim property fair.
How is your plan to make Athens cooler progressing?
When I was running for mayor, I said that I would try to reduce the city’s temperature by 5c within five years. That went viral. I pointed out two things that we could do immediately: plant trees and use new materials for roads. We’re engaging people [with these plans].
How big a problem is overtourism?
We’re struggling. We are now Greece’s number-one destination. We carried out a study that identified neighbourhoods that were oversaturated with tourists and stopped Airbnb in those areas. We also stopped extra bonuses for new apartments and extra square metres for hotels that are meant to be green hotels.
How are you creating more affordable housing?
We’re running two programmes: one with subsidies for families and young people, and another with subsidised rents. We’d like to have the opportunity and capacity to build new houses. So we need regulation and money.
Transport: Tunis
Inside lines
In recent years, Tunis has opened two new rail lines intended to reduce commuting times between the periphery and the centre. The city’s Réseau Ferroviaire Rapide (RFR) network now boasts 28 Hyundai Rotem electric trains, the result of a project that kicked off in the early 2000s with support from international lenders. These included the EU and the Agence Française de Développement, plus private companies such as Germany’s Siemens and French engineering firm Systra.
The network has proved extremely popular with Tunisois. Last year, RFR’s Line E alone carried seven million passengers in a city with a population of about 700,000. “This rail network is a concrete and effective solution to desaturate the Tunisian capital and is a new reference point for the Maghreb region,” said Faiçal Chaabane, Systra’s senior vice-president for Egypt and North Africa. The latest service to open is Line D, which upon completion will be 19km and connect settlements northwest of Tunis, such as Le Bardo and Gobâa, with the capital. Travelling from the latter now takes just 15 minutes, compared to at least an hour before the new train. On day one, 10,000 passengers got on board.
The next stop for the RFR will be Lines C and F, which will expand the network to about 85km, further linking the major population centres on Tunis’s outskirts to the city centre. If all goes well with the project’s financing, the works should be completed in 2027. Full steam ahead.
