On Thursday 3 October, the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group signed an update to their 2018 Memorandum of Understanding in order to strengthen their partnership.
This revised Memorandum of Understanding will enable the two organisations to identify financing needs for collaborative defence projects involving EU Member States and their defence industries “to support capability development, research, development and innovation (RDI), technology and infrastructure in the field of security and defence in the EU”, the EIB said in a press release.
The aim is also to better meet the funding needs of collaborative defence projects and to strengthen mechanisms such as the Cooperative Financial Mechanism (CFM).
The agreement should also encourage better knowledge sharing between the EIB, the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the EDA, “enabling more reliable assessments of market demand and industrial capacities in the Member States”. The EDA will provide industrial defence advice to the EIB Group, while the EIB Group will contribute its financial markets expertise to support the EDA’s objectives. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)