EU's defence capability pilot programme soon to release first round of funding

The EU’s two-year pilot programme to support defence capability development should soon release funding for its first round of projects, with the deadline approaching in December for its second and final annual call for proposals, according to the EU official in charge of the initiative.

Launched with a EUR500 million (USD585 million) budget for 2019–20, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) is laying the legal and technical foundations for launching the European Defence Fund (EDF) in 2021. The EDF will spend EUR1 billion per year until the end of 2027.

“Are we catching up with our international competitors in the defence sector? We’ve selected good projects for the EDIDP but we haven’t spent anything yet,” Alain Alexis, head of the European Commission’s directorate-general for defence industry and space (DG DEFIS) told a 29 October hearing of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on security and defence.

“We are only at the beginning of the spending process but signatures are under way for the first money to be released soon,” he said.

DG DEFIS will spend EUR200.5 million on 16 technology proposals selected from among 40 submitted earlier this year in response to its 2019 calls for proposals. The development projects range from cyber and unmanned ground and air system technologies to earth observation capabilities and software-defined radio architecture. They involve companies and other entities from 24 of the EU’s 27 member states, albeit none from the UK, which definitively exits the EU on 31 December 2020.