What changed

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

P10_TA(2026)0080

on flagshipFlagship European defence projects of common interest

(2025/2144(INI))

Committee on Security and Defence

PE776.841

European Parliament resolution of 11 March 2026 on flagship European defence projects of common interest (2025/2144(INI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the joint white paper from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 19 March 2025 entitled ‘Joint White Paper for European Defence Readiness 2030’ (JOIN(2025)0120),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/697 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 establishing the European Defence Fund (EDF)1,(EDF),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2025/2643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2025 establishing the European Defence Industry Programme and a framework of measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products (EDIP Regulation), in particular Chapter IV thereof regarding European Defence Projects of Common Interest (EDPCIs),

– having regard to the Commission proposal of 19 March 2025 for a Council regulation establishing the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) through the reinforcement of the European defence industry Instrument (COM(2025)0122),

– having regard to the Commission proposal of 22 April 2025 for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) 2021/694, (EU) 2021/695, (EU) 2021/697, (EU) 2021/1153, (EU) 2023/1525 and (EU) 2024/795, as regards incentivising defence-related investments in the EU budget to implement the ReArm Europe Plan (COM(2025)0188),

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1106 of 27 May 2025 establishing the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) through the Reinforcement of the European Defence Industry Instrument,

– having regard to The Hague Summit Declaration issued by the NATO heads of state and government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in The Hague on 25 June 2025,

– having regard to the 10th progress report of 10 June 2025 on the implementation of the common set of proposals endorsed by EU and NATO Councils on 6 December 2016 and 5 December 2018,2017,

– having regard to the cooperative equipment programmes managed by the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR),

35. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, NATO, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the EU security and defence agencies and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

A new defence for a long-lasting peace.

The nineteenth century was an age forged in Steel. Its emergence transformed the world, laying the foundation for an era of unprecedented industrial power and disruptive warfare. By the time of World War I, Steel had become not merely a material but the backbone of modern conflicts: a force that shaped structural design, logistics, defence, and military strategy alike. This revolutionary material fed and sustained an unprecedented industrial revolution and a new weapon systems: cannons, munitions, naval fleets, armoured vehicles and aircraft, helmets, infrastructures. Merging the new industrial framework and a large-scale production of materials required to support the needs of the front.

Today, warfare dominated by big powerful instruments, the conventional weapons of the 19th Century, appears to be evolving “from Steel to Web”. The new technologies are transforming strategies, the cyber domain and artificial intelligence, no longer limited to massive firepower and large-scale confrontations, moving towards miniaturization and decentralization of systems, as drone prove, AI-enabled weapons, smart mines, and portable missile systems in battlefields. Even the role of human power is changing: there is less and less employment of direct human involvement and presence in the frontline. Conflicts today present a total new landscape and totally new threats.

The challenges posed by the emergence of new and evolving threats to EU security require today the EU and its Member States to deal with a new defence framework to defend their collective sovereignty, act and respond autonomously or in partnership with their allies, particularly within NATO, to immediate and future threats.

Change

After three decades marked by a trend toward disarmament across the EU, the changes to the global and regional security environment and new threats to the security of the European continent, have made it necessary for EU Member States to increase their efforts to acquire more military capabilities for their defence. At the NATO Summit on 25 June 2025 in the Hague, 23 EU and NATO member states committed to invest 5% of their Gross Domestic Product annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035.

Choice

The expected surge in total military spending by the EU and its Member States should translate into several hundred billion of investment in new defence equipment, over the next years.

Until now, the development and procurement of defence equipment in the framework of European cooperation, remains rather the exception. Furthermore, the Commission has indicated that 78% of the defence acquisitions by EU Member States between the start of Russia’s war of aggression in February 2022 and June 2023 were made from outside the EU, with the US alone representing 63% of it.

Building a decision architecture

Against this backdrop, the EU has explored over the years new directions and launched new initiatives to strengthen and develop defence capabilities in a collective and cooperative manner. As part of EU effort to help EU Member States to work together for developing new capabilities, the concept of projects of common interest for European defence has been a long-standing feature of policy-making.

The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) mechanism, launched in 2017, has fostered several tens projects of joint development. Furthermore, the Strategic Compass on Security and Defence adopted in March 2022 calls for the collaborative development of next-generation capabilities in all operational domains. With the Versailles Declaration, EU Member States also committed in March 2022 to fostering industrial initiatives, including through important projects of common European interest and industrial alliances. In the political guidelines for the next European Commission 2024−2029 "Europe's choice", the President of the Commission listed the tasks to pool resources to counter biggest common and cross-border threats through flagship European Defence Union projects. The White Paper for Defence Readiness 2030 released by the Commission in March 2025 specified areas for which Member States should urgently pool their efforts, including a set of such projects, to be defined by Member States, that would benefit from EU incentives. The Commission's proposal of March 2024 for a regulation establishing the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) provides the first regulatory framework for these projects. In its special report on this proposal, the European Court of Auditors drew the attention to the need to secure long-term financial support as a prerequisite for their selection. Lastly, in its scoping paper of 29 September 2025 on Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, the Commission proposes to launch a set of four initial European Readiness Flagships.

Flagship projects of common interest for European defence need strategic guidance and recommendations on their selection, implementation, financing and oversight, with the aim of maximizing their impact, while ensuring cohesion between Member States. They should be large-scale, pan-European, collaborative initiatives in defence capabilities and industrial development.

Filling capability gaps requires developing autonomous Strategic Enablers to facilitate Member States' armed forces in effectively conducting joint military operations, in order to achieve a safe and secure common architecture for command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, as well as common deterrence to ensure the maximum defence for a long-lasting peace for states and their citizens.