Brussels – The Council of the EU also gave its final approval. Today (12 October), the Council formally adopted the regulation establishing the programme for agile and rapid innovation in the defence sector (AGILE). With a budget of 115 million euros, the instrument provides “rapid, agile and targeted” financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – including start-ups and scale-ups – engaged in developing defence products. Specifically, the programme is designed for a small number of targeted projects – between 20 and 30 – capable of producing technological solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence, quantum technology and drones. The aim is to help SMEs move from prototypes to operational capability.
The Council’s adoption follows the provisional agreement reached with the European Parliament on 15 July 2026 and comes after the European Parliament approved the text during its October plenary session. The regulation will now be signed by the Presidents of the European Parliament and the Council and published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The text will enter into force just 20 days after its publication. A call for proposals is expected to be launched in early 2027. The Irish Minister for Defence, Helen McEntee, said: “AGILE gives SMEs an additional key instrument to do what they do best, innovate, only faster and at greater scale, turning technological excellence into operational capability.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
