Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen

Our security landscape has changed dramatically. The threats we face are larger and more global, ranging from powerful organized crime networks and terrorism to hybrid threats fueled by disinformation and sabotage of our critical infrastructure, often by hostile foreign state actors.

They directly threaten our way of life and our ability to choose our own future through democratic processes.

According to threat assessments by several EU intelligence services, Russia will have the capacity to test Europe’s military capabilities and unity within the next three to five years.

This necessitates an immediate ramp-up of efforts to re-establish defense readiness and deterrence by 2030.

In this context, defense readiness should be understood as the capability of Member States and the Union defense industry to anticipate, prevent, and respond to defense-related crises.

Defense readiness relies on the availability of industrial capacity to acquire and maintain the resources, capabilities, and infrastructure required for effective responses.

We need to create credible preparedness to deter potential threats.

Therefore, the Union is enabling Member States to raise up to EUR 800 billion for additional defense spending to promote peace over the next four years under the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030.

More than half of the Member States have activated the national escape clause within the Stability and Growth Pact, utilizing the flexibility to increase their defense spending.

In line with the European Councils call for the European Commission to accelerate efforts to enhance Europe’s defense readiness within the next five years, this Defence Readiness Omnibus will support Member States in strengthening the defense industrial base and overall EU defense readiness and agility by 2030.

We will create the necessary conditions to frontload investments in defense capabilities, providing predictability to industry and reducing bureaucratic obstacles.

This ambitious package consists of seven proposals.

Simplifying processes, particularly permitting and reporting obligations, is essential to ramp up defense material production in the EU.

It offers three significant benefits:

First, it unlocks massive economies of scale. By creating a wider, more stable defense market, we empower our Member States to achieve more for their investment and innovation.

Second, it reduces our dependence on non-EU suppliers. In today’s volatile world, relying on third countries for our defense is a strategic vulnerability. An integrated EU market ensures the long-term viability of Europe’s strategic independence.

Third, it directly supports the competitiveness of our European Defense Technological and Industrial Base. Every euro spent on defense should contribute to the growth and development of European industry across our continent.

This is a win-win-win: stronger defenses, greater independence, and a more robust European economy.

Throughout this process, we have listened carefully to our Member States and the defense industry. We hope that Member States will fully utilize the package we have prepared.

We also encourage co-legislators to complete essential legislative work swiftly.

We have no time to waste. Our citizens expect us to act.

The success of this package relies on its implementation.

The Defence Readiness Omnibus will support Member States in strengthening defense capabilities, the defense industrial base, and overall defense readiness.

The Commission will do its part and continue to collaborate closely with Member States.

I will now give the floor to my esteemed colleagues Valdis and Andrius, with whom we have worked closely to present this ambitious proposal. This has been a genuine whole of Commission exercise.

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Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis

The European Union has always been a peace project. That has not changed and will not change. What has changed is the context we find ourselves in.

Today, our Union is not at war. However, with a high-intensity war raging on our borders and Russia’s persistent threats and aggressive posture, we are no longer at peace, either.

According to several EU intelligence services, the capacity of Russia’s war machine to produce military equipment has increased tremendously in recent years. As a result, Russia will have the military capabilities to launch an attack against EU and NATO Member States within the next three to five years.

We are not trying to be alarmist. We simply need to act based on the current reality.

This means we must respond to the threats we face with utmost urgency.

What does this mean in practice? We all know that weakness encourages aggression, while strength deters it. Therefore, we need to ramp up efforts to re-establish Europe’s defensive capabilities by 2030 to provide credible deterrence against Russian aggression.

To achieve this, we must enhance the capacity and readiness of the European defense industry. This will require massive and sustained investment, along with strong cooperation with our allies.

The good news is that we have already taken decisive steps to facilitate this investment. The Commission’s ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 initiative will help mobilize an unprecedented volume of resources: up to €800 billion for additional defense spending over the next four years.

But investing alone is not enough. Our challenge is not just to spend more, but also to achieve more from what we do spend.

This brings me to today’s proposals. The Defence Readiness Omnibus seeks to ensure that our rules and regulations support—and do not hinder—these investments.

This is precisely where the Commission’s implementation and simplification agenda can help—by making our rules simpler and faster.

In other words, today’s defense proposals can help unleash the potential of the European Union’s greatest achievement—the Single Market—for the benefit of the European defense industry and overall deterrence.

An EU-wide defense market is the most effective way for Member States to restock their arsenals and enhance their readiness.

This means EU countries will need to overcome centuries of military history and tradition, wherein enhancing defenses was never a cooperative effort. The old saying United we stand, divided we fall has never been truer.

As with all our simplification proposals, we have engaged closely with key stakeholders—the defense industry, national authorities, defense experts, and others—to address the challenges they face.

Today’s proposals are ambitious and comprehensive. They focus on:

• Addressing key bottlenecks that hinder the production of defense equipment,
• Clarifying legal ambiguities,
• Streamlining processes to eliminate unnecessary administrative hurdles and reduce costs.

They primarily address defense regulations and programs. But they also consider how other EU rules can be improved to facilitate investments in defense, access to key inputs, such as chemicals, and the creation of European supply chains.

Commissioner Kubilius will present today’s proposals in greater detail, but let me highlight three examples of major simplifications in action.

Firstly, we propose to significantly fast-track permitting processes for the defense industry, including the creation of a single point of contact at the national level.

• The deadline for reviewing permitting requests will be 60 days.
• The absence of any response from national authorities will be interpreted as approval.

Secondly, we are simplifying defense procurement rules to maximize efficiencies and reduce administrative burdens and costs.

For example:

• We are facilitating the procurement of innovative solutions that will contribute to the transformation of defense through disruptive innovation and technologies. This is crucial given the fundamentally changing nature of warfare, as seen every day in Ukraine.
• We are also increasing the thresholds for applying procurement rules to €900,000 for supply and service contracts.
• We are proposing to extend the duration of framework agreements from 7 to 10 years and open them to other Member States.

My third example relates to ensuring that our defense companies have easy access to private capital.

Today, we are issuing a Guidance Notice to financial institutions and the defense sector clarifying once again that the Union’s sustainable finance framework does not impose any limitations on financing the defense sector.

The Commission clarifies that only weapons prohibited by international arms conventions, to which the majority of Member States are party, should be excluded from certain sustainable investment indices under the Benchmark Regulation.

To conclude, today’s proposals are part of our broader efforts to simplify Europe’s regulatory regime and enhance the competitiveness of our economies.

I am confident that massive investment in the defense industry will create positive spillover effects for our entire economy.

The military applications of Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, quantum computing, and other technologies will ultimately find their way into civil usage, boosting Europe’s future competitiveness.

I will now hand over to Andrius to present further details.

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Commissioner Andrius Kubilius

We are living in special times. As Mark Rutte famously said: We are not at war. But we are certainly not at peace, either.

For the first time in a generation, the risk of large-scale conventional attack in Europe has re-entered the strategic calculus. Our readiness for defense and deterrence is currently insufficient; we lag far behind the capabilities required for NATO defense plans.

We need to recognize that our previous way of thinking has only two categories: peacetime or wartime. This is also how our regulations have been structured. This is a flawed approach. We must acknowledge a simple but vital truth: when full peace can no longer be taken for granted, we need defense readiness to deter aggression and prevent war. Defense readiness demands different regulations from peacetime.

When intelligence services warn that aggression is possible, readiness to defend peace becomes a priority.

We urgently need to prepare. We need to get our peacetime European Union body ready for defense, fit for self-defense, and ready for defense readiness.

This is why we adopted the Joint White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030, committing to mobilizing €800 billion in additional defense investment over the next four years.

Money alone, however, is not enough. Traditional red tape, which may be suitable for peacetime, can stifle industrial efforts to ramp up production.

Now we need enabling rules that provide industry, armed forces, and investors with speed, predictability, and scale.

This Omnibus is a legal vehicle that adapts peacetime legislation to current geopolitics, which demands defense readiness, first of all by providing much more clarity in interpreting existing legislation.

The Omnibus is built on evidence and dialogue, with over 200 detailed submissions during public consultation.

In short, the process has been fast, but inclusive. It has allowed us to create this evidence-driven and extremely ambitious Defence Readiness Omnibus.

This package contains seven different acts, including the Communication on Defence Readiness Omnibus, framing defense readiness as a public good.

We adapt these acts to make them more suitable for supporting defense readiness.

What is included in the package?

In our consultations, we heard key concerns:

1. On permits:

• Single point of contact for the defense industry in each Member State.
• 60-day response time, and silence means approval.
• Priority handling of related legal challenges.

This regulation mirrors the Net-Zero Industry Act model. The objective is clear: no critical project should stall for years due to a lack of regulatory clarity. It shall receive a yes or no within 60 days.

2. On finance:

• No more controversies with ESG criteria: defense is compatible with sustainability criteria, like any other sector.
• No more controversies over what counts as controversial weapons within the context of ESG. We establish a clear list of prohibited weapons. Investors will know what to avoid to meet ESG criteria.
• InvestEU is adjusted to welcome, not dismiss, viable defense projects, although safeguards will remain intact.

We aim to unlock capital for security and peace. Financing defense can no longer be considered controversial.

3. On the environment:

• Clarity and legal certainty in implementing environmental legislation. Without altering the environmental legislation, we want to confirm that public safety, overriding public interest, and crisis include defense readiness. This is not new legislation, just new legal certainty.
• We want our chemical legislation to consider defense, as our defense readiness relies on chemicals for explosives and ammunition. We aim to maintain the discretion of Member States to utilize exemptions and simplify their usage for defense.

4. On economic conditions:

• We want our Competition rules to support defense readiness. We provide clear guidance on how we will treat mergers and state aid in the defense industry.
• We will engage with governments and social partners to discuss whether it is necessary to address the Working Time Directive concerning military personnel to support defense readiness.

5. On EU defense-specific instruments: on the European Defence Fund, defense procurement directives, and intra-EU defense transfers.

We want to make defense-related regulations simpler and more flexible, truly ready for innovations and to benefit from Ukraines experience; we aim to reduce paperwork and reporting, and with increased thresholds for applying European procurement rules, we want to free up Member States resources for larger procurements.

With the new innovation procurement, we will tap into the innovation potential of start-ups, SMEs, and mid-caps; we want procurement to support disruptive innovations and create conditions for a supply chain that is European by design and adheres to single market principles, with simpler and faster licensing for the transfer of defense products within the Union.

Our package proves that speed is not the enemy of accountability. Deadlines will be tight, but the standards we aspire to will remain in place.

Let us demonstrate together that Pax Europaea is not just our inheritance but today also our shared responsibility.

Our defense readiness is a shared responsibility with the Council and Parliament. We hope that institutions will discuss and approve this Omnibus with the same urgency with which we prepared it.

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