European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP)

Briefing 28-09-2018

The European Union is facing new security threats amid growing uncertainty about the reliability of some of its allies. As a consequence, it has embarked on a general scalingup of its defence capabilities. A European defence action plan has been agreed and a European Defence Fund created to provide financial support, ranging from the research phase to the acquisition phase of military equipment and technologies. The EDIDP, which will be part of that fund, is destined to provide the European defence industry with financial support during the development phase of new products and technologies in areas selected at European level. An agreement was reached in trilogue negotiations in May 2018, and after Parliament and Council had approved the deal, the final legislative act was signed on 18 July 2018. This programme, with a financial envelope of €500 million, is due to run from January 2019 to December 2020.