EU leaders on Thursday took a major step towards closing Europe’s most urgent defence gaps – though who leads, funds and delivers remains to be settled in the months ahead.
The 27 leaders agreed to “finalise” setting up coalitions tasked with addressing Europe’s military shortfalls “by the end of the year,” with projects expected to launch in early 2026.
The scale of the challenge is considerable. Member states will work on the nine capability gaps first identified by the Commission – from ammunition, missiles and air defence to cyber, AI, drones, and military mobility.
Brussels wants these efforts to establish several “flagship” projects under its Defence Readiness Roadmap, including the European Drone Defence Initiative (EDDI), the Eastern Flank Watch, the European Air Shield, and the European Space Shield.
But the summit conclusions distanced themselves from such ambitious goals, stopping short of naming any of these initiatives. Instead, in the text, EU leaders referred only to “anti-drone and air defence capabilities,” which could mean drones and counter-drones technologies, as well as air and missile defence.
That covers just two of the nine targets, in terms broad enough to give capitals leeway to redefine priorities.
The Commission’s ambitious Defence Readiness Roadmap laid out a series of milestones and timelines, but only two deadlines made it onto the leaders’ agenda: finalising the coalitions by the end of the year and launching “concrete projects” in the first half of 2026.
It remains unclear what those projects would look like, and capitals now have less than six months to set up groups with leads – or co-leads – and decide where exactly to invest.
For António Costa, the president of the European Council, that already counts as progress. “We defined our priorities capabilities,” he said, adding they’ll “start” with drone, air defence, and the Eastern flank.
So far, the Netherlands and Latvia are positioning to head one coalition – EDDI. Germany is interested in air and missile defence, ground combat, and maritime defence. France aims to lead or join five, particularly in air defence, artillery, and space, according to information gathered by Euractiv.
For EU leaders, implementation and oversight remain in their hands. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that it was their job, in line with the EU treaties.
To support that process, they have tasked the intergovernmental European Defence Agency with helping to implement the roadmap and presenting an annual report card to track progress, according to the summit conclusions.
The Commission, meanwhile, has cast itself as a “facilitator,” offering technical assistance and advice to align capitals’ initiatives with existing EU funding, including the €150 billion SAFE loans and the €1.5 billion European Defence industry programme (EDIP).
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the EU could strengthen Europe’s defences “in areas where it has its own competences,” citing the need to speed up production planning and approval procedures.
Costa hailed the summit’s defence discussion as a “decisive building block” towards Europe’s sovereignty – though, for now, the structure remains largely on the drawing board.
(cp, cz)
