The legislation adopted in the Industry, Research and Energy committee will increase funding for defence-related investment by amending existing EU programmes – the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund (EDF), the Digital Europe programme (DEP) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – to channel EU funding towards defence.

“Defence and security technologies” will be added as a fourth strategic sector under the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP). MEPs broadened the definition of defence technologies to include societal resilience, such as critical infrastructure protection, disaster response, and election integrity.

In Horizon Europe, MEPs backed the Commission’s proposal to support civil applications with potential military applications (dual use). Funding rates in the European Defence Fund, will be increased for SMEs and small mid-caps, allowing up to 100% EU co-financing for eligible projects.

MEPs…