On Friday 21 November, the representatives of the Member States were still unable to agree on a mandate for negotiations with European Parliament on the ‘Omnibus V’ package of simplified defence legislation (see EUROPE 13661/6), comprising two regulations and a directive, which should create simpler and faster authorisation procedures for defence industry investments. Regarding authorisations, they have not yet been able to agree on the concept of tacit approval. On security and defence procurement, it was decided not to include eligibility criteria relating to ‘European preference’ in this simplification package alone, and to postpone this debate until the public procurement directives are revised in 2026. According to one source, however, the European preference eligibility criterion should be included in the revision of the defence procurement directives. Member States will discuss this mandate again next week. (SP)