The European Union is exploring the possibility of raising additional defense funding after the initial €150 billion SAFE program ends soon.
Points of attention
- The European Union is considering ways to secure additional defense funding after the termination of the €150 billion SAFE program.
- The EU's focus is on boosting local defense production to protect against Russian threats and decrease reliance on US security commitments.
EU seeks additional defense funding
The sources said discussions are at an early stage as the European Commission is still distributing funds from the current lending program. Officials expect that several billion will remain in the fund due to discrepancies between countries' requests and final contracts. This issue is currently being worked on.
But once the money runs out this spring, the European Commission will evaluate the process and consider another round of financing, which could potentially include a second lending program.
These talks reflect the EU's desire to rapidly scale up local defense production to protect against Russia's threatening policies, as well as President Donald Trump's desire to reduce US security commitments in Europe.
Recall that last year the EU created a lending program to encourage joint defense procurement and simplify the procedure for moving military equipment across the continent. The program was called SAFE.
The plan involved the European Commission raising funds on capital markets and distributing them in the form of loans to countries to purchase specific goods that the continent lacks. These include missiles, ground-based equipment, and missile defense systems.
Initially, EU capitals submitted applications for 190 billion euros, but then the European Commission approved about 150 billion euros and asked countries to develop spending plans.
The EU executive is currently working on these plans and distributing the money in the form of long-term soft loans. In recent days, the European Commission has approved plans for 19 countries, but several more remain unimplemented.
The commission is currently evaluating the national SAFE plans of the three remaining states, said commission spokesman Thomas Rainier.
