A report by ECR MEP Zdzislaw Krasnodebski on a new European Defence Fund has been adopted by the European Parliament today. Once established the Fund will provide financing to help Member States better pool military procurement resources and finance cross-border investment in interoperable defence technology and will have a total budget of 13 billion EUR for 2021-2027.

Krasnodębski introduced several crucial changes into the European Commission’s initial
proposal which aim at further increasing cooperation between entities
throughout the Union, incentives for including SMEs and mid-caps into
transnational defence projects, ensuring European entities controlled by allied
third countries are eligible also those from third countries currently under
the EU sanction regimes.

Speaking after the vote, Krasnodębski said:

“The geopolitical situation in Europe is changing and therefore Member States the greater need to cooperate on their common security. We have started hearing more and more about the “strategic autonomy” of Europe or the creation of a “European army”. But we shouldn’t lose touch of reality - these are only ideas and something that could only ever happen in the distant future, if at all.

“European security still underpinned by membership in NATO and the European initiatives within security and defence policy can only be a supplement and not a replacement. What this fund does is help EU Member States reduce their dependency on imports from outside the EU, help them cooperate more procurement and boost the competitiveness of the sector in the world.”