Five countries have signed up for SAFE loans to fund defence spending—not Italy

Brussels – Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, and Belgium. These are the first five European Union countries to have signed loan agreements with the European Commission to receive a share of the €150 billion SAFE (Security Action for Europe) fund to finance defence projects. Italy is absent. This was confirmed by the European Commission’s spokesperson for Defence, Thomas Regnier, during today’s (29 May) press briefing. “In total, we have five Member States that have signed a loan agreement with the Commission: Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania and Belgium. Italy is not part of the group,” he explained to those who asked. 

Meanwhile, today Poland received the first payment of €6.6 billion under the SAFE programme, amounting to 15 per cent of its total allocation of €43.7 billion. Warsaw is the main beneficiary of these funds and the first Member State to receive a payment under this instrument. For the Commission, the pre-financing will help the country to accelerate priority investments in the defence sector, strengthen resilience, and modernise its military capabilities in line with shared European objectives. According to Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, “Europe must be prepared for any scenario and ready to act under any circumstances. The SAFE loan programme is important element in this mission—it is an essential tool for securing and advancing our continent’s urgent military capabilities.”

Echoing her views, the Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, stated that “today’s pre-financing of €6.6 billion for Poland under SAFE represents a concrete step forward for common security” and “will help to deliver investments faster and strengthen Europe’s operational readiness.” Officials at the Berlaymont Building explain that this pre-financing payment follows the completion of all necessary procedures and that “further payments will follow as the Polish SAFE plan is progressively implemented.” 

The SAFE programme is financed through EU borrowing on the financial markets, enabling it to provide long-term loans at competitive rates and on favourable terms to Member States that apply for them. It is one of the pillars of the RearmEU/Readiness 2030 plan, which aims to free up €800 billion in defence spending and was adopted by the Council on 27 May 2025. The deadline for Member States to express interest and quantify the indicative amount of loans to be requested was 29 July 2025. By 30 November, interested countries were required to submit their National Defence Investment Plans to Brussels. Nineteen Member States did so, including Italy, which is set to receive €14.9 billion in loans under its plan. In January, the Commission’s proposal for financial assistance to 16 countries, including Italy, was adopted. In May, loan agreements were signed with Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania and Belgium, and today the first disbursement was made to Warsaw.