On Monday 26 January, the European Commission announced that it had approved eight new investment plans submitted by Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia under the European ‘SAFE’ instrument for granting loans to increase investment in the defence sector (see EUROPE 13763/2).
The EU Council has four weeks to assess and adopt these national plans, after which the Commission expects to be able to make a pre-financing payment next March.
In mid-January, the EU institution had already approved the plans of eight Member States (see EUROPE 13788/14). Of the nineteen countries participating in the ‘SAFE’ instrument, France (with an estimated budget of €16.2 billion), Hungary (€16.2 billion) and the Czech Republic (€2 billion) have yet to respond. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)