The European Union has cleared its first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, giving the cross-border initiatives access to a funding route under the European Defence Industry Programme. The decision, taken on 28 September, moves the projects beyond the proposal stage and into a formal framework for their initial deployment.
The package covers five areas: drones and counter-drone systems; maritime and seabed defence; space capabilities; integrated air and missile defence with early warning; and protection of the Union’s eastern flank. The projects are intended to bring participating countries together around capabilities judged too large or complex for a single member state to develop alone.
What the decision changes
The immediate consequence is eligibility for funding through the European Defence Industry Programme, rather than an automatic award of a stated sum to each project. The programme had previously set aside €325 million to support the establishment and deployment of these projects. The approval says that funding is intended to help their initial deployment and could provide a foundation for possible further support through the planned European Competitiveness Fund.
That distinction matters. The Council’s decision identifies the projects and opens the dedicated funding procedure; it does not set out final grants, contracts, delivery dates or a division of the €325 million between the five. Any such steps would need to follow the programme’s funding process.
Five projects, five capability areas
The drone initiative, called Drone and Counter-Drone European Resolve, or DECODER, is intended to help participating countries build, scale up and deploy drones as well as technologies designed to counter hostile drones. Its stated purpose is to address capability gaps across the countries taking part.
Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence, known as IMSD, is planned as an interoperable system for identifying, deterring and responding to threats at sea and on the seabed. The announced scope places particular emphasis on connecting participating countries’ defensive efforts, rather than describing a single new platform.
The project designated SPACE covers several areas of space capability. These include early-warning satellites for detecting missile launches, satellite communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and positioning and timing systems. The approved outline also includes navigation-warfare capabilities and the ability to launch replacement satellites rapidly when required.
The EU Federated Integrated Air and Missile Defence including Early Warning project is intended to give member states collective integrated air and missile defence. Its published scope includes early warning of incoming threats and coordinated command systems. Eastern Flank Watch has a wider geographic and multi-domain remit: strengthening security along participating countries’ eastern border across land, air, sea, cyber and other domains.
From expressions of interest to approval
The route to the decision began with a February call for expressions of interest from member states. Nine proposals were submitted. In July, the European Commission put forward a list of five after taking account of the views of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Defence Agency. The Council has now identified those five as projects of common interest.
The wider European Defence Industry Programme is a €1.5 billion grants framework for 2025 to 2027. It is designed to support defence-industrial capacity, common procurement and longer-term cooperation. The project framework is also open to Norway and Ukraine. At the proposal stage, the Commission said that Ukraine was participating in four of the five projects and that the average project involved 18 member states.
For now, the decision establishes a common industrial and funding framework rather than a declaration that the systems have been built or fielded. Progress will therefore depend on the participating countries, the projects’ agreed milestones and the subsequent funding decisions made under the programme.
