European Defence Agency portfolio swells under bloc's defense ambition

Yahoo

09-04-2025

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The European Defence Agency enters its third decade with a beefed-up mandate and record spending, as officials face mounting pressure to transform political ambitions into combat-ready capabilities.
The agency now oversees five core tasks – up from three – including joint procurement facilitation and defense innovation coordination, the agency said in its annual report, released this week. The update follows a May 2024 landmark Long-Term Review endorsed by EU defense ministers, who pledged to increase collaborative spending amid concerns over industrial fragmentation and technological gaps.
EU defense expenditure was projected to have reached €326 billion, or $361 billion, in 2024 (1.9% of GDP), a 30% increase since 2021. Almost a third (31%) now flows to defense investments, primarily the procurement of new equipment.
Nonetheless, Europe still spends less than 0.05% of its GDP on defense research and technology – a fraction of U.S. and Chinese investments. 'Buying together saves money, while developing assets together makes us more independent,' said Jiří Šedivý, the Agency's chief executive, last December.
The agency's expanded role includes managing around 200 projects worth €681 million, from the Low Earth Orbit satellite demonstrator to the multinational procurement of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine. Ten countries have ordered over €350 million worth of ammunition through EDA's fast-track mechanism, with first deliveries reaching Kyiv in May 2024.
'The European defence base remains fragmented, characterised by a lack of joint procurement and national preferences for defence spending. This results in small, localised markets with relatively low production numbers,' Šedivý told a February 2025 European Economic and Social Committee forum. One of the EDA's key objectives is to neutralize this European disadvantage and instead play to the Union's strengths.
The joint procurement of weapons is one example of this, and an entirely new dimension to the EU's capabilities that would have been unthinkable until Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was formalized as one of the EDA's tasks in May 2024. Brussels's joint purchase of shells was the first time that the bloc had jointly made an arms purchase.
Since 2022, the European Union has become more assertive in the defense space and has made decisive moves towards increasing Brussels' role in military matters. Just last month, EU leaders greenlit a new defense spending scheme.
Closer collaboration with Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, and the United States – albeit based on pre-Trump trends – was also in the cards, according to the EDA report.
Four landmark letters of intent were facilitated by the European Defence Agency last year. The flagship amongst them—literally—is an agreement to develop a common European combat vessel by 2040. The ECV is meant to 'protect trade routes to ensure the uninterrupted flow of goods to and from EU territory,' the Agency said in its report.
The other three big new projects cover loitering munitions, electronic warfare and an integrated air and missile defense for the continent, with the Agency working to coordinate procurement and conduct research into disruptive technologies to give Europe a leg up on threats only just beginning to emerge.
Despite the increase in scope and subsequent back-patting in its annual self-assessment, some challenges do remain for the EDA. For one, the EU's stated goal to make 35% of all defense procurements collaboratively is likely still ambitious, with the most recent numbers from 2021 putting it at 18%.
'The urge to swiftly address capability shortfalls through readily available military equipment has led to a surge of national off-the-shelf acquisitions, causing a temporary slowdown of collaborative procurement,' the EDA wrote in its end-of-2024 report last December.
As the Agency prepares to move into its brand new, purpose-built Brussels headquarters by 2027, its test will be converting ministerial declarations into deployable capabilities. With the European Defence Fund allocating €1 billion for 2025 R&D projects – including AI-enabled systems and dual-use technologies – the agency will see growing importance, but also increased pressure to deliver strategically relevant results.
'As Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine enters its fourth year, the need for a strong, resilient, and coordinated European defence is greater than ever,' Šedivý said in his recap of the past year. The EU must be able to defend itself, he added -- 'alone, if necessary. This new era demands bold decisions and action.'