EU intensifies defense and military buildup push

The EU has greenlit a slew of new joint defense-industrial initiatives, with Ukraine joining most of them, as Brussels presses ahead with its defense buildup despite Russia’s warnings against the bloc’s “rabid” militarization.

The initiatives are part of the European Defense Projects of Common Interest (EDPCIs), large-scale industrial programs pitched as a way for groups of countries to jointly develop, manufacture, and deploy military capabilities too big or complex to tackle alone. The projects fall under the €1.5 billion European Defense Industry Program (EDIP), one of the EU’s mechanisms for expanding weapons production.

The Council formally endorsed the first five megaprojects within the framework on Monday, including:

• Drones and counter-drone systems (DECODER): scaling up and deploying military drones, along with systems to detect and neutralize UAVs;

• Maritime and seabed defense (IMSD): creating joint systems to detect and respond to threats at sea and on the seabed;