Bids for Commission's defence loans programme ‘well above' €150 billion
Last Wednesday, the Commission received loan interest totalling €127 billion, but Euractiv understands the figure to reflect only the lower end of countries' requests. Capitals have to submit both a minimum and maximum bid to Brussels.
Euractiv's sources said the upper range of those bids from the 18 countries is much higher than the programme's €150 billion total lending envelope, as first reported on Firepower.
The outcome of the requests comes "well above" the total of the financial envelope associated with the programme, a person with knowledge of the figures told Euractiv.
SAFE was initially pitched by the Commission in March as the financing arm of their broader plan to boost the European defence industry, ramp up production of military gear and ammunition, and replenish stockpiles to "rearm" Europe.
The programme is capped at €150 billion, which means the EU executive will have to decide how to split the sum and redistribute it to capitals in loans.
Just a few weeks ago, the Commission feared that not all the money set aside for SAFE would get used. The plan was to run applications again next year to distribute leftover funds to new defence projects.
But even with the demand now exceeding the budget, the EU executive still wants more countries on board. A letter sent Friday encouraged the nine member states that haven't yet sent their requests to do so in the course of the summer.
That is much earlier than the official deadline for all EU countries to submit their plans. Capitals have until the end of November to lay out clear plans for the minimum and maximum amount they want from SAFE, and detail what kind of military hardware they plan to buy with the money.
Aurélie Pugnet contributed reporting.
(ap, mm)
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