The European Commission plans to allocate up to €20 billion for joint defense projects with Ukraine

The European Commission plans to attract about 20 billion euros of unused loan funds from the SAFE program to finance joint defense projects of the European Union and Ukraine.

This was stated by European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius during hearings in the European Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee.

This is the second call for proposals under the SAFE program. The funds are planned to be directed to joint projects that will be implemented both in Ukraine and in the European Union countries.

According to Kubilius, one of the key tasks of the initiative is to deepen cooperation with the Ukrainian defense industry, taking into account Ukraine’s experience and innovations in the defense sector.

Ukraine lacks €23 billion for defense

The European Commissioner also stated that in 2026, Ukraine’s defense budget will have a deficit of approximately €23 billion.

According to him, one of the reasons for the lack of funding is the failure of individual states to fulfill their previously made commitments to provide Ukraine with over 40 billion euros.

Against this background, Kubilius stressed the need to strengthen support for Ukraine from international partners.

Joint projects with Ukrainian defense companies

The intention to use the remaining funding of the SAFE program for a separate area of ​​cooperation with Ukrainian companies was announced by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, back in September.

Separately, the European Commission is allocating 325 million euros to the creation and implementation of five European defense projects of common interest — EDPCI.

Ukraine is participating in four out of five such projects.

Thus, the planned attraction of up to 20 billion euros may become another large-scale mechanism for integrating the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex into the European defense production system.