The Commission has approved funding for five cross-border projects to support more coordinated and efficient defence procurement among EU Member States. Each of the five selected projects, implemented under the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through Common Procurement Act instrument (EDIRPA), will receive €60 million, representing a total amount of €300 million funding.
Through economies of scale, the common procurement will make critical defence capabilities more affordable for Member States' armed forces. Products procured in common will also enhance interoperability among Member States' armed forces. Better predictability, which comes with larger contracts, will strengthen the European industry, and allow it to adapt its production capacity to Europe's defence needs. All in all, the common procurement efforts will reinforce defence readiness in the EU Member States.
The European Commission's approval marks a new era in European defence cooperation. The five funded projects will facilitate the joint procurement of critical defence products by Member States across three key areas: air and missile defence systems, modern armoured vehicles, and ammunition. Together, these projects represent a combined procurement value of over €11 billion, highlighting the significant leverage of EU funding; EDIRPA's €300 million investment has incentivized a commitment over 36 times larger, demonstrating the programme's effectiveness in driving substantial defence investments across the EU.
The initiatives will now move into the grant agreement preparation phase, involving detailed coordination between the Commission and Member States' public authorities. In addition to the selected projects, other promising proposals were submitted. They have been added to a reserve list making them identifiable for potential future funding.
The selected EDIRPA projects involve 20 Member States, some of which will engage in common defence procurement projects for the first time, reflecting EDIRPA's role in encouraging collaboration among Member States to address critical capability gaps. Most selected projects also include procurement of defence products intended for Ukraine, including air and missile defence systems and ammunition, bolstering the country's defence capabilities in the context of the ongoing Russian aggression.
Background
The EDIRPA programme is a short-term instrument adopted following Russia's aggression against Ukraine and made to last until 2025 with the aim to incentivise cooperation for the most urgent defence products. The programme supports the procurement of defence capabilities by the armed forces of the Member States and Norway. The EDIRPA budget is not paying for defence products but is compensating Member States for the additional administrative costs of procuring in common.
In March 2024, the Commission presented the proposal on a European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) to extend the EDIRPA logic beyond 2025, to continue to aggregate European demand and increase interoperability.
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