Here is what the EU's proposed new defence industry programme envisages

The Russian Federation's large-scale military invasion of Ukraine not only caused extensive damage to civil infrastructure, but also had as one of its consequences the impairment of demand for certain defence products in Europe. All of this has happened with a limited 'peacetime' production capacity of the European defence industrial and technological base (the acronym is: 'EDTIB'). In the long run, this situation raises doubts about industrial readiness in the European defence sector, i.e. the ability of the EDTIB to respond effectively (in terms of time and scope) to changes in European demand for defence products. On 5 March, the European Commission proposed a new regulation on the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).

In particular, the proposal, which is currently being examined for an opinion by the Defence and Productive Activities Committees of the Chamber of Deputies, aims to establish anew European Defence Improvement Programme (EDIP) with the objective, on the one hand, of strengthening the competitiveness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), according to the perspectives of the new European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), which accompanies the proposal. On the other hand, the initiative takes into account the urgency to supply Ukraine with defence products.

The programme would have an allocation of EUR 1.5 billion for the period 2025-2027 from the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 (the allocation is already foreseen in the recent mid-term review agreement of the same framework). The proposal consists of five chapters and 67 articles. Here are the main solutions envisaged.

Parallel to the European one, there is the grand plan proposed by NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg himself to 'institutionalise' aid coordination under the umbrella of the Atlantic Alliance and 'inject' new resources for military support to Kiev (the famous 100 billion plan over five years, which according to unconfirmed rumours could be reconfigured into 40 per year, it remains to be seen over what timeframe). The work is in progress and will mature in time for the NATO summit in Washington.

Instead, it aims to strengthen the European defence industry's capacity to ensure the timely production, availability and supply of defence products, and to contribute to the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of the Ukrainian defence industry, as part of the EU's future security commitments to Ukraine and in view of its future accession to the European Union.