European Commission invests EUR 910 mln in European Defense Fund involving Ukrainian defense companies for first time

The European Commission will invest EUR 910 million in the European Defense Fund (EDF) for 2024, which may involve Ukrainian defense companies for the first time.

This was announced by European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier at a briefing in Brussels on Wednesday.

According to him, these investments aim to support 62 selected projects to create a strong and innovative defence industry in Europe, in order to "to close key capability gaps – like force mobility and drone defence – through innovation and collaboration across European science and industry. Moreover, and for the first time, Ukrainian defence industries can be associated to EDF projects," Rainier said.

The European Commission press release also notes that the enhanced cooperation between the Ukrainian and European defence industries is based on the outreach efforts of the EU Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv, aimed at promoting closer ties and further integration of Ukraine into the European defence industrial base, strengthening common security and innovation objectives.

"These EDF investments will boost Europe's defence industry, in line with the Commission's ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 to strengthen pan-European defence capabilities, and the Joint White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030, framing a new approach to defence and identifying investment needs," the European Commission said.

According to the statement, following the results of the EDF competition in 2024, nine projects were selected to develop breakthrough technologies, such as the METASTEALTH project, which develops next-generation stealth materials. "Newly selected projects also include Ukraine's Small UAS, which focuses on developing advanced, AI-driven aerial systems," the commission said.