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EU names first five joint defence projects as ministers lock in industrial flagships
EU defence ministers on Monday formally identified the first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, giving legal status to a set of industrial programmes that Brussels wants to use as the backbone of joint capability work through the rest of the decade.
The Council confirms projects covering drones and counter-drones, maritime and seabed defence, space, federated air and missile defence, and surveillance of the eastern flank. The Commission first proposed the list on 3 July after a call for expressions of interest launched in February.
The five programmes are not small R&D grants. They are meant to be multi-year industrial coalitions that no single capital can finance or industrialise alone. Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius put the combined investment ambition at around €190 billion by 2036.
The immediate EU cash is far smaller: €325 million from the €1.5 billion European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) for 2025–2027, of which €300 million is reserved for mature projects. Each of the five is expected to receive a €60 million starter tranche to stand up governance and start deployment. A second call is planned by the end of April 2027.
The five projects
DECODER (DronE and Counter Drone European Resolve) is the broadest coalition: 26 member states plus Norway and Ukraine, with only Malta staying out. It is also the cheapest on paper, at an estimated €3.5–5 billion by 2033. The aim is coordinated development, scaling and fielding of interoperable unmanned systems and counter-UAS kits, including a network of European drone technology hubs. Ukraine’s wartime experience is built into the design.
IMSD (Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence) groups 17 countries, including Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Norway. Estimated cost: €43–72 billion by 2045. It covers maritime domain awareness, naval combat, interdiction, underwater and seabed warfare, and protection of ports, offshore platforms, cables and pipelines — the same infrastructure that has been a political flashpoint since the Baltic and North Sea incidents of recent years. The countries staying out are Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia.
SPACE is the only one of the five without Ukraine. Sixteen countries, among them Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Finland and Norway, are lined up behind space-based early warning, military SATCOM, ISR/SIGINT, space domain awareness, PNT/NAVWAR and responsive launch. Estimated envelope: up to €24 billion by 2034. The Commission presents it as a direct building block of a European “space shield.” The countries staying out are Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia — and Ukraine.
EU-FIAMD (EU Federated Integrated Air and Missile Defence including Early Warning) also involves 16 countries. It is the industrial counterpart to the political “European Air Shield”: a federated system-of-systems for collective IAMD, early warning and protection of critical infrastructure, aligned with NATO air and missile defence work rather than as a substitute for it. The countries staying out are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia.
Eastern Flank Watch (EFW) is the most expensive line on the sheet: €60–100 billion by 2036, with 13 EU members plus Norway and Ukraine. It is framed as a persistent surveillance and deterrence architecture along the land and air approaches from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with supply-chain work for SMEs and mid-caps written into the industrial case. The countries staying out are Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia.
On average, 18 member states sit in each project. Ukraine is in four of five. The Commission, the High Representative and the European Defence Agency are expected to sit in as participant or observers. Malta sits out all five projects, while Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia join only the drone programme and stay out of the other four. Bulgaria is in two of five: drones (DECODER) and maritime/seabed (IMSD). It stays out of space, air and missile defence, and Eastern Flank Watch.
What this actually changes
EDPCIs exist because of Article 35 of the EDIP regulation adopted in December 2025. To qualify, a project must involve a wide group of states, be large enough to matter, strengthen the European defence technological and industrial base, cut fragmentation, and line up with EU and NATO capability priorities and with PESCO and EDA work. Nine proposals were filed by the 29 May deadline. Four — artillery (ARTISYS), land robots (ERCUL), a multi-domain operations platform (ARCADIA) and a defence data space for AI (EDDS) — were judged not mature enough. Capitals can bring them back in the next call.
Identification is not a signed procurement contract. It makes the projects eligible for EDIP money and, later, for the planned European Competitiveness Fund after 2027. National budgets and industry still have to carry the bulk of the €190 billion figure. That is the political test: whether coalitions that look good on a Council annex produce common requirements, common orders and actual factories, or stall at the coordination stage.
The timing is not accidental. The European Council in June told ministers to finish the first EDPCI list quickly. The package also sits inside the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, which already named drone defence, an eastern flank watch, an air shield and a space shield as flagships to be operational by 2028. Monday’s vote turns those slogans into named industrial vehicles with participants, cost ranges and a first cheque. Whether they close Europe’s capability gaps will also depend on the EU long-term budget, yet to be agreed.
This article draws on offical sources.
Caption: Roundtable, Foreign Affairs Council (Defence), 28 September 2029.
