The agreement was formalized during a ceremony on the sidelines of the Eurosatory defense exhibition, near Paris, by the French Ministers of the Economy and the Armed Forces, Roland Lescure and Catherine Vautrin, and the European Commissioners for the Budget and the Defense, Piotr Serafin and Andrius Kubilius.
For the European Budget Commissioner, it is “an important step in the construction of a Europe capable of taking greater responsibility for its destiny”. “Until four years ago, the idea of a common European financial effort for the field of defense remained largely in the minority. In practice, it was mainly carried by France. Today, this vision has become a European political reality,” he said.
Financing of arms projects
The 15.1 billion euros loan allocated to France will make it possible to finance 29 projects of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and six others in the field of research and space, said Catherine Vautrin. “This money will be used to create growth and value in our territories,” she said, recalling that the defense industry represented 240,000 jobs in France.
The Safe (Security Action for Europe) instrument aims to help EU member states rapidly increase their defense investments through joint procurement. For France, the acquisitions of Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, MMP anti-tank missiles or even GlobalEye radar surveillance aircraft from Sweden are intended to benefit from this.
/2026/06/17/6a32ad9acbdab613823881.jpg "Iranian tankers breached US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since the start of the Middle East war")
