The European Commission has approved funding for five defence projects. Each of them will receive €60 million, according to a press release. Most projects also include the purchase of defence products for Ukraine, including air and missile defence systems and ammunition.
The joint procurement is expected to strengthen the defence preparedness of EU member states. For the first time in history, EU members will jointly purchase critical defence products in three areas.
These are air and missile defence, modern armour and ammunition. Two projects will strengthen air defence - Mistral and Jamie. The Edirpa project will support the purchase of armour, and the other two projects will support the purchase of ammunition. Each of them will involve a different number of countries: from four to nine. In total, 20 out of 27 members will participate, President Ursula von der Leyen told X.
‘In addition to the selected projects, other promising proposals were submitted. They have been added to the reserve list, which allows them to be identified for possible future funding. For example, the Member States involved in these proposals may seek to financially support them by transferring unused EU funds allocated to them under the joint management,’ the European Commission explained.