Brussels: The European Commission has put five joint defence projects on the table, unveiling on 3 July 2026 a first wave of European Defence Projects of Common Interest that aim to pool member states’ budgets and factories behind the capabilities the bloc most urgently lacks.

The five defence projects cover drones and counter-drone systems, maritime and seabed protection, integrated air and missile defence, military space, and the security of the Union’s Eastern Flank. On average 18 member states back each project, Ukraine joins four of the five, and Norway may take part as well.

The Commission has ring-fenced €325 million from the €1.5 billion European Defence Industry Programme to launch and deploy the schemes. Officials put the combined long-term funding ambition at roughly €190 billion by 2036, which would make the initiative the largest collaborative defence-industrial effort the bloc has attempted.

Andrius Kubilius, the Commissioner for Defence and Space, cast the projects as the scaffolding for a future European shield.

“These new, ambitious, and long-term defence projects will act as key initiatives to strengthen EU defence readiness and bolster our strategic autonomy. The EDPCIs we are proposing today will make a direct contribution to the development of a European Air, Maritime and Space Shield, enhanced Drone and Counter-Drone Capabilities, and securing the Eastern Flank Watch,” Kubilius said.

Each project works as a label that unlocks EU money, joint procurement and lighter regulatory treatment once at least four countries club together. The Commission wants governments to buy the resulting equipment jointly rather than through fragmented national contracts, a pattern that has long pushed up prices and left armies with incompatible kit.

The proposal now goes to the Council and the European Parliament, which must sign off before funding flows. Capitals will also have to decide which project each will lead and how much national money to add on top of the EU contribution.

The timing reflects a wider rearmament drive. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the bloc has moved from cautious coordination to a string of new instruments, including the EDIP, common borrowing plans and a push to build hardware at home rather than import it from outside the Union.

The proposal at a glance:

• Five projects: drones and counter-drones, maritime and seabed, air and missile defence, space, and the Eastern Flank.
• €325 million allocated now from the €1.5 billion EDIP envelope.
• Around €190 billion combined funding ambition by 2036.
• 18 member states on average per project, with Ukraine in four.

Analysts caution that the headline €190 billion figure rests on national budgets governments have not yet committed, and that Europe’s defence firms cannot expand output overnight. Supply bottlenecks, skilled-labour shortages and tangled export rules could all slow delivery even once the money arrives.

For now, the five defence projects mark the clearest signal yet that Brussels intends to steer, and part-fund, the hardware Europe buys. The Commission has framed them as the missing industrial pillar beneath its readiness goals and set out its case in a detailed proposal published on 3 July 2026. Whether they close Europe’s capability gaps will depend on how fast member states turn political endorsement into signed contracts.