Today, the European Commission published the Defence Readiness Omnibus, a comprehensive package mandating a shift to a defence-readiness mindset and facilitating the immediate ramp-up of the up to the expected EUR 800 billion of investments in the next four years. To defend Europe’s freedom in front of growing threats, we must have the readiness to deter those who would do us harm. To achieve defence readiness, Europe needs to ensure the capacity of the Member States and defence industry to acquire and maintain the resources, capabilities and infrastructure required to respond effectively and in an agile way to crises and to deter threats through credible preparedness.
As noted in the White Paper for European Defence-Readiness 2030, the Union’s acquis, adopted in peacetime, is not fully adapted to the objective of developing the necessary capabilities to credibly deter armed aggression. This Omnibus consists of a Communication from the Commission and legislative and non-legislative proposals in defence and non-defence legislations to reply to the European Council’s call of 6 March 2025 to the Commission “to swiftly take work forward on simplifying the legal and administrative framework” in areas such as public procurement, industry cooperation, permitting and reporting requirements.
Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said: “The only way to ensure European peace is to make sure we are ready to defend ourselves credibly and quickly. With this package, we are putting forward ambitious proposals to cut red tape and facilitate the EUR 800 billion defence investments that Member States urgently need to undertake to deliver European Defence Readiness by 2030.”
Key Measures Proposed
The Defence Readiness Omnibus proposes targeted amendments and regulatory clarifications:
In EU defence legislation:
- European Defence Fund (EDF): Following extensive feedback from stakeholders and the interim evaluation, the proposal reduces administrative burden for applicants, cutting reporting requirements for participants in EDF projects, speeding up implementation of the Fund, reducing time to grant and improving both agility and predictability.
- Defence procurements: contracting authorities and industry face significant time and resource-consuming procedures. The proposal promotes agility, flexibility and speed through incentivising common procurements by at least 3 Member States to buy off the shelf products to replenish their stocks, facilitating procurement of innovative defence solutions, increasing flexibility for framework agreements, and doubling the Defence Procurement Directive’s thresholds for supply and service contracts.
- Transfers of defence-related products and technology between EU Member States: Some EDF projects have been delayed by up to one year purely due to authorisation processes on intra-EU transfers of defence-related products. The proposal improves speed and minimising restrictions to the necessary to facilitate the implementation of EDF projects crucial for the development of critical defence innovations.
In EU non-defence specific legislation:
- Permitting for defence-related projects such as an extension of military training areas or building new weapon factories can take up to a few years in some Member States due to the national processes in place which are not adapted to the current period. This Omnibus proposes a new fast track permitting regime for defence readiness which would bring down permitting time to 2 months, create a single point of contact and streamline the administrative procedures. This goes hand in hand with clarifications that Member States can use existing derogations for overriding public interests for defence readiness activities in EU environmental legislation.
- Chemicals legislations are often lacking specific defence considerations when banning or restricting substances, adding uncertainty to investment projects where these chemical components may be critical. This proposal gives a clearer mandate for Member States to balance environmental/health standards with defence readiness considerations and allow exemptions for the use of chemical substances in defence readiness investments.
- Improve access to finance for defence-related projects in view of the expected EUR 800 billion investments by streamlining eligibility rules for InvestEU and providing guidance on defence and sustainable finance to promote investments.
The legislative proposals will be transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council for examination under the ordinary legislative procedure.
The Defence Readiness Omnibus builds on extensive feedback from stakeholders during the public consultation, bilateral discussions with Member States and industry, a strategic dialogue with industry chaired by President Von der Leyen on 12 May, an implementation dialogue chaired by Commissioner Kubilius on 19 May. The findings underscored a shared need for faster, pertinent procedures and a more integrated approach to enable cross-border defence cooperation and build-up investments.
Interim evaluation of the European Defence Fund
The European Defence Fund interim evaluation has highlighted the significant progress made towards achieving the programme’s objectives during the first years of implementation. With €5.4 billion already invested in defence R&D, the Fund has boosted collaborative defence R&D spending in the EU. As also noted by consulted stakeholders, the EDF has fostered unprecedented cross-border defence R&D cooperation across the EU, encouraged the participation of SMEs and newcomers in defence R&D projects, and promoted the development of critical next-generation European defence technologies and products addressing critical gaps in all capability domains (ground, air, naval, space, and cyber).
Background
The initiative builds on the vision set out in the White Paper for European Defence-Readiness 2030, which identified regulatory simplification and harmonisation as essential levers for boosting Europe’s defence preparedness.
