The informal agreement reached on Thursday by MEPs and the Danish Presidency of the Council will allow for the creation of the first-ever European defence industry programme (EDIP). The scheme seeks to strengthen the European defence technological and industrial base essential for boosting European defence capabilities.

During negotiations, MEPs successfully pushed for an increase to the programme’s budget, by providing for additional financial contributions such as through the channelling of additional contributions negotiated under the SAFE instrument. In addition, the programme allows for member states to use the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to its full potential, by diverting and reallocating unspent RRF-backed funds to support EDIP projects. The overall envelope is worth €1.5 billion of which €300 million would go to the Ukraine Support Instrument. Furthermore, co-legislators agreed on creating a FAST instrument with the aim of reaching an indicative amount of…