SAFE Loans: Building Europe’s Defence Together
SAFE provides common loans for participating EU Member States to purchase defence equipment through common procurement. The full list of participating Member States and types of purchases that may fall under SAFE can be found here.
On Friday 26/09, the Commission came together with defence ministers from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria to discuss plans for common procurement to secure the eastern border of the EU. The discussion mostly focused on the potential of a Drone Wall. The total loan requested by those seven members comes out to €79.4 billion, a part of this will be allocated to a drone wall, with Norway, Moldova, and Ukraine also interested in participating in the project and common procurement, they will, however, need to fully fund their own part of it.
With minimum 65% of component cost needing to be sourced from the EU, EEA-EFTA, or Ukraine, the EU defence industrial base, and particularly the European drone innovators, look to be expanding a lot in the medium-term, making item prices go down and therefore streamlining defence expenditure across the EU. That way, the 3.5% of GDP defence spending goal set at the NATO-level is expected to get members more bang for their buck and strengthen defence cooperation and effectiveness.
Non-EU Members that are allowed to participate in common procurement, without receiving part of the loan, are all EU candidates and potential candidates, as well as signees of Security and Defence Partnerships with the EU. Canada and the United Kingdom are also negotiating to receive a portion of the loan.
The role of private-sector professionals in this can be to assist participants in drafting their National Defence Investment Plans or negotiating the Common Procurement Agreements with eligible countries. Suppliers must, of course, source over 65% of their components from Europe.
To learn more about expanding your opportunities for project funding, contact EUFUNDINGHUB !