First EU-funded cross-border defence projects kick off

Brussels–After grand public proclamations about the need to build a European defence industry, the Commission has approved the funding of five cross-border projects for joint procurement aimed at purchasing weapons and military equipment that will involve some twenty member states.

The green light from the EU executive arrived Thursday (Nov. 14) and includes a budget of €300 million, to be divided equally into 60 million for each project. The goal of the projects (which are framed within the European Instrument for the Reinforcement of the Defense Industry through Joint Procurement, the EDIRPA) is to improve coordination and efficiency in procurement among EU countries, touching specifically on three thematic macro-areas. Overall, the amount of procurement to which these projects will contribute is over 11 billion.

The first is the procurement of air and missile defence systems. It concerns the Mistral project (regarding the purchase of the eponymous short-range systems), in which nine member states are involved (Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Hungary), and the Jamie project (for the procurement of medium-range Iris-T SLM defence systems), which includes six countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, and Slovenia).

Another procurement category is for the purchase of armoured vehicles, specifically CAVs for troop transport, and involves Finland, Germany, Latvia, and Sweden. The last two projects, CPOA 155 mm and HE 155 mm, involve six and four member states, respectively (Denmark, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, and Hungary the former; Denmark, Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands the latter) and have at their core the procurement of calibre 155 mm artillery ammunition.

“With better value for money due to economies of scale, joint procurements will make critical defence capabilities more affordable for Member States’ armed forces,” reads the Commission’s communiqué, which stresses that “with jointly procured products, member states’ armed forces will have better interoperability” and that joint contracts are expected to strengthen European industry by equipping it with “clearer perspectives and greater predictability,” leading overall to increased defence readiness for the Twenty-Seven. Most of the selected projects also include the procurement of war materiel that should then be sent to Ukraine to support Kyiv’s armed forces in resisting Russian aggression.