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.

And our own readiness for defence and deterrence is not sufficient; at the moment in terms of current capabilities we are lagging far behind what we need to have for NATO defence plans.

We need to understand, that our way of thinking till now has only two categories: peace time or war time. That also how our regulations are built. Its a wrong approach. We must recognise a simple but vital truth: when full peace can no longer be taken for granted, we need defence readiness - to deter aggression and prevent war. Defence readiness time also demands different regulations  from peace time.

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

We now urgently need to get into shape. Get our peace time European Union “body” ready for defence, fit for self defence, fit for defence readiness.

This is why we all adopted the Joint White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030. It commits to mobilising €800 billion in additional defence investment over the next four years. 

Money alone, however, is not enough, if traditional “red tape”, which maybe is fit for peacetime, will kill industrial efforts to ramp-up production.

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

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

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

In short: the process has been fast, but inclusive.

It allowed to create this evidence-driven and extremely ambitious Defence Readiness Omnibus.

In the package there are 7 different acts, including the Communication on Defence Readiness Omnibus  – which  frames defence readiness as a public good.

We adapt those acts to make them more fit to support the defence readiness.

What is in the package?

In our consultations what were we told about?

Most important - Fast-track permitting. Lengthy national permitting is the number-one complaint from both armed forces and suppliers.

Not going into detail about each of the seven acts, which were approved today, I would like to name the 5 most important aspects of the proposals we are making:

1. On Permits

• Single point of contact for defence industry per Member State.
• 60-day response time, and silence means approval.
• Priority handling of all related legal challenges

This regulation mirrors the “Net-Zero Industry Act” model.

The objective is clear: no critical project should stall for years because of deficit of regulatory clarity. It shall receive a yes or no within 60 days.

2. On Finance

• No more controversies with ESG criteria:  defence is compatible with sustainability criteria, like any other sector.
• No more “controversies” over what counts as ‘controversial weapons, in the context of the ESG. We establish a clear list of ‘prohibited weapons. Investors will know what to avoid if they want to meet ESG criteria
• InvestEU adjusted so as to welcome, not to dismiss, viable defence projects. The safeguards, however, shall remain intact.

We want to unlock capital for security and peace. Financing defence can no longer be considered as controversial.

3. On Environment

• Clarity and legal certainty in implementation of environment acquis. Without opening the environmental acquis, we want to confirm that ‘public safety, overriding public interest and crisis include defence readiness. This is no new legislation, just new legal certainty.
• We want our chemical legislation to take defence into account, because our defence readiness relies on chemicals for explosives and firing ammunition. We want to keep the discretion of Member States to use exemptions, and  we want to make it simpler  to use exemptions in defence.  
• Not only  in  a case-by-case  approach, but also for defence industry in general.

4. On economic conditions

• We want our Competition rules to not prevent our defence readiness. We give a clear guidance, how we will treat Mergers and State Aid in the defence industry.
• We want to engage with governments and social partners whether its necessary to address the Working Time Directive in view of military personnel to  support defence readiness.

5. On EU defence-specific instruments: on European Defence Fund, on Defence procurement directives and on Intra-EU Defence Transfers.

We want to make defence related  regulations first of all simpler and more flexible; really ready for innovations and to benefit from Ukraines experience; we want to reduce the paper load and reporting; with an increased threshold for application of European procurement rules we want to liberate resources of Member states to focus on bigger procurements.

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

******************

Our package proves that speed is not the enemy of accountability.

Deadlines will be tight, but the standards, that we aspire to, remain in place.

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

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