Defence: from Poland to Greece, the EU has already disbursed 8.1 billion through SAFE – FOCUS

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The EU has already disbursed approximately 8.1 billion euros under the SAFE programme to support defence procurement. To date, according to official statements, five countries have already accessed a portion of the funds in the form of pre-financing, as provided for under the instrument: Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Croatia and Greece. A total of nineteen countries, however, have made preliminary applications to reserve funds; among these is Italia, which has ‘opted’ for 14.9 billion but has yet to decide whether to draw down all or part of this amount. The five countries furthest along in the programme have received 15 per cent of the total requested as their first tranche: specifically, Poland received €6.6 billion at the end of May (out of the €43.7 billion it is aiming for), Cyprus received 177.2 million (out of a total of 1.2 billion), Lithuania 956.3 million (out of 6.4 billion), Croatia received 255 million (out of 1.7 billion) and, just last week, Greece received its first tranche of 118.2 million (part of the 787.7 million initially requested). In May, Romania and Belgium also signed loan agreements with the European Commission, for 16.7 and 8.3 billion respectively, and are expected to receive pre-financing amounting to 15 per cent of the total shortly.

The Security Action for Europe programme is worth a total of 150 billion euros and consists of ‘long-term loans on competitive terms’ to enable a rapid response to military procurement needs. The programme gives priority to joint projects involving at least two countries and requires that 65 per cent of the value of purchases be for products from the EU, EFTA or Ukraine, whilst non-EU supplies must not exceed 35 per cent.

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