EU financial assistance will cover the development of new
and upgraded products to make the EU more independent and
enhance its capability in the area of defence. EU countries
will work together to pool resources and spend defence
budgets more efficiently.
Infographic: 26.4 billion euros
are lost every year on duplication, overcapacity and
barriers to defence procurement
Who can apply?
Actions funded by the programme will need to be carried out
by at least three public or private companies established
in at least three different EU member states, MEPs insist,
and participating companies and their subcontractors should
not be managed by non-EU bodies.
What is covered
The European Defence Industrial Development Programme funds
the development phase (between research and production) of
new and upgraded defence products and technologies in the
EU, from design to certification.
Excluded products include weapons of mass destruction,
banned weapons and munitions, incendiary weapons and those
which are fully autonomous and can strike without
meaningful human control, MEPs agreed.
Funding rates
The programme budget is 500 million euros for 2019-2020.
The financial assistance would cover all costs for all
projects, apart from prototypes, where a cap of 20% is set.
Projects undertaken under the Permanent Structured
Cooperation, the framework for EU cooperation in
defence, can get a bonus of additional 10% co-funding, MEPs
added. Involving SMEs could, under certain conditions, also
generate additional co-funding bonuses, as MEPs encourage
them and the “mid-caps” (undertakings that are not SMEs and
have a maximum of 3000 employees) to use the programme to
create new cross-border cooperation.
Selection and work programme
MEPs want the Commission to be assisted, when awarding the
funds, by independent EU experts from as broad a range of
member states as possible.
Next steps
The legislative resolution prepared by rapporteur Françoise
Grossetête (EPP, FR) was approved by 49 votes in favour to
12 against. The draft mandate for starting talks with EU
Ministers on the final shape of the programme needs to be
confirmed by Parliament as a whole in March. Once done,
negotiations can start, as Council adopted its general
approach in December 2017.
