We will act on defence to protect Europeans by helping Member States rebuild, replenish, and transform national armed forces by building upon the existing defence industrial programmes, to invest in high-end capabilities in critical areas such as naval, ground, air combat, space-based early warning and cyber; helping pool resources and counter common threats through flagship European defence projects to be ultimately decided by Member States; developing a single market for defence products and services, enhancing defence research and development, production capacity and fostering joint procurement. Central to this work will be further strengthening EU-NATO cooperation.

The Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG-DEFIS) is the European Commission's department tasked with strengthening the competitiveness and innovation of the European Defence industry by ensuring the evolution of an able European defence technological and industrial base.

The European Commission has adopted the Defence Readiness Omnibus, a comprehensive package aimed at establishing a defence-readiness mindset across the European Union. This initiative lays the groundwork for facilitating up to EUR 800 billion in defence investments over the next four years, enabling Member States and industry to respond swiftly and effectively to growing threats.

ASAP aims to ramp-up of ammunition production capacity across Europe and with this, help Member States refill their stocks and deliver ammunition to Ukraine by anticipating bottlenecks and shortages in the defence supply chains.

The EDF is the Commission's instrument to support Research and Development in defence.

The European Union needs to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) and achieve defence industrial readiness. This is necessary to better protect our citizens and support our partners.

EDIP is a Regulation proposed by the Commission to start implementing concrete measures identified in the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS).

EDIRPA is an EU programme aimed at incentivising cooperation in defence procurement between Member States to jointly coordinate and acquire the most urgent and critical defence product needs, especially those amplified from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The Commission and the High Representative have presented a White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 on 19 March 2025. The Commission has also presented, as part of the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030, an ambitious defence package providing financial levers to EU Member States to drive an investment surge in defence capabilities. While the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 strengthens pan-European defence capabilities with new financial means, the White Paper frames a new approach to defence and identifies investment needs. The Commission also adopted a Communication on Accommodating increased defence expenditure within the Stability and Growth Pact.

The EU and its member states are ramping up their defence spending and investment at a time of rapid geopolitical shifts and a radically changed security situation.

The European Defence Agency was established under a Joint Action of the Council of Ministers on 12 July, 2004, "to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy as it stands now and develops in the future”.

The EU Satellite Centre supports the decision making and actions of the European Union in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), in particular Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), including European Union crisis management missions and operations, by providing products and services resulting from the exploitation of relevant space assets and collateral data, including satellite imagery and aerial imagery, and related services.