The Juncker Commission is making an unprecedented effort to protect and defend Europeans. From 2021, a fully-fledged European Defence Fund will foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base and contribute to the EU’s strategic autonomy. To welcome this new fund in the best possible way, the European Commission is preparing the ground and launching several calls for projects to reach the defence transition.
The Commission has adopted work programmes to co-finance joint defence industrial projects in 2019-2020 worth up to €500 million. A further €25 million have been earmarked to support collaborative defence research projects in 2019, with 9 calls for proposals launched the 19 March 2019. 12 further calls will follow for 2020. These calls will cover priority areas in all domains:
- Enabling operations, protection and mobility of military forces: €80 million euro
- Intelligence, secured communication & Cyber: €182 million euro
- Ability to conduct high-end operations: €71 million euro
- Innovative defence technologies & SMEs: €27 million euro
- Eurodrone and support ESSOR interoperable : 237 million euro
