At their first interinstitutional meeting, the Danish Presidency of the EU Council and the negotiators from the European Parliament agreed, on the night of 5 to 6 November, on a ‘mini omnibus’ for defence, which aims to amend several EU instruments (the ‘Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform - STEP), Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund - EDF, the Digital Europe Programme - DEP and the ‘Connecting Europe Facility - CEF’.
The aim of this ‘mini omnibus’, presented in April 2025, is to facilitate investment projects designed to strengthen the European defence industry and to channel European funds towards defence (see EUROPE 13625/2).
The Council and European Parliament negotiators therefore decided to extend the EU’s financial support under Horizon Europe’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, to dual-use and defence-related companies, while largely maintaining the eligibility rules already in place for EU instruments such as SAFE (‘Security Action for Europe Instrument’) and the EDIP (‘European Defence Industry Programme’). This will be done as part of a targeted exemption under this Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), without prejudice to the outcome of the forthcoming negotiations on the next MFF.
“Defence and security technologies” will be added as a fourth strategic sector within the STEP Platform. Support will be extended to non-bankable SMEs, including start-ups and small mid-sized companies.
It will also be possible to obtain European funding for dual-use transport infrastructure under the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF), including military mobility corridors. The Commission may impose conditions relating to the country of origin of the equipment, goods, supplies or services used, depending on the agreement reached.
The agreement also contains the creation of an earmarking clause for the funds resulting from the mid-term review of cohesion policy in several of the aforementioned programmes.
Lastly, the negotiators decided to associate Ukraine with the European Defence Fund, which has €7.3 billion available for 2021-2027, “thus opening up new prospects for Ukrainian entities to participate in the EU’s collaborative defence research and development activities in the future”, according to the Council.
The agreement reached by the negotiators still has to be approved by Parliament and the Council. The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) will vote on the text on 20 November, before it is submitted to all MEPs at the plenary session before the end of the year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)