This second Implementation Dialogue with the European Union (EU) defence industry will focus on how to accelerate ramp-up of the EU Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB).
This dialogue follows the spirit of the 2025 White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030, which called for an urgent ramp up of industrial production capacities and launched the Strategic Dialogue with the defence industry to identify regulatory hurdles and defence industry challenges. The White Paper was accompanied by the ReArm Europe Plan, including the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan instrument, and the coordinated activation of the National Escape Clauses (NEC) from Stability and Growth Pact rules. Later in 2025, the Commission also published the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 (COM/2025/27) and the EU Defence Industry Transformation Roadmap (COM/2025/845), setting out concrete actions to deliver on the strategic vision set out in the White Paper.
Concretely, the discussion will address implementation challenges and recall existing EU instruments that can support the EDTIB ramp up production, including the European Defence Industry Programme, adopted by the co-legislators in December 2025, and the proposal for a Programme for Agile and Rapid Defence Innovation (AGILE), tabled in March 2026. The dialogue will be an opportunity to take stock of the implementation of measures to support EDTIB’s ramp-up of production and consider avenues to accelerate this process, including:
- Tapping into the idle production capacity in the civilian sector and the potential for innovative manufacturing solutions in the EU – e.g. Manufacturing as a Service.
- Using defence procurements to anticipate and prepare for the demand surges, for instance through long-term contracts, framework agreements, and ever-warm facilities.
- Supporting actors lower down the supply chains to ramp up and how banks could provide better access to loans, in particular when these are SMEs
- Accelerating the participation of new entrants to defence procurements, building on the Defence Industry Transformation Roadmap, as new entrants often do not have access to contracts
- Exchanging on additional contractual, administrative, legislative and policy obstacles that impact rapid defence industrial ramp-up, in order to complement the Defence Readiness Omnibus.
- Understanding how to reinforce the defence supply chain by reducing non-EU dependencies (such as components and critical raw materials)
The outcomes of this discussion will allow the Commission to strengthen effective implementation of existing defence industrial ramp-up instruments and inform future initiatives encouraging civilian-defence industrial synergies, including under of the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). It will also inform the upcoming Commission communication on the internal market for defence products and services and the implementation of the defence security of supply regime.
