Defence Readiness Omnibus

Defence readiness refers to the capacity of the Member States and defence industry to acquire and maintain the resources, capabilities and infrastructure required to respond effectively and in an agile way to crises and to deter threats through credible preparedness. 

• Europe's security landscape has fundamentally changed. Concrete threats at our borders are increasing at a rapid pace while our industrial and institutional readiness is still far outpaced.
• At the same time, our defence industry and defence forces face many legal and administrative obstacles that slow down adaptation, production, cooperation and innovation.
• The European Council recognised this urgency in its 6 March 2025 conclusions, explicitly calling on the Commission to act without delay.
• The Defence Omnibus answers that call with a focused, stakeholder-driven package that clears the path for a scaled-up European defence effort.

• The proposals have now been transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council and will be examined under the ordinary legislative procedure.
• We encourage the co-legislators to move quickly to adopt these simplifications, in light of the pressing need for industrial readiness and the Member States’ shared interest in stronger and faster defence products delivery.
• We also rely on the co-legislators to exert the necessary restraint and approach the Omnibus proposal as a way to provide quick solutions to support the defence readiness objective; the proposal should not be used as an opportunity to revise unrelated provisions of the legal text for which amendments are proposed. 

• All simplifications will remain within the bounds of existing EU legal and policy safeguards. Reporting and oversight mechanisms remain in place, but they will be better coordinated and more fit-for-purpose.
• The Commission will also continue engaging with Member States and stakeholders through dedicated monitoring forums to track the proposal’s impact and adjust where necessary.

• Many of the bottlenecks in the current system disproportionately affect defence SMEs and mid-caps — be it access to EU funding, dealing with national-level permitting or with control of cross-border transfers; all of those are immensely more cumbersome in terms of resources for SMEs than for larger companies.
• This proposal makes rules clearer and reduces the overall administrative burden so that defence SMEs can fully tap in their innovation potential.

• Strategic autonomy depends on a responsive, integrated and resilient industrial base. Without the ability to rapidly produce, procure, and field critical defence capabilities, we cannot credibly deter threats or reduce dependency.
• This proposal helps clear the legal and procedural path for exactly that kind of capacity building — within a European framework, and in line with Member States’ sovereignty.
• The proposal strengthens the subsidiarity principle, by empowering Member States to find the balance between defence readiness and other societal objectives.

• This initiative is built with — not just for — the defence ecosystem.
• The Commission undertook a broad public consultation earlier this year, coordinated by DG DEFIS, and engaged with over 200 stakeholders — including Member States, defence industry leaders, SMEs, and sectoral associations.
• The interim evaluation of the EDF, published in this package, also allowed for pointing out needs for simplification and streamlining after three full cycles of implementation to deliver critical innovations rapidly.
• President Von der Leyen chaired the first-ever Strategic Dialogue with the European Defence Industry on 12 May to collect ideas.
• In addition, on 19 May Commissioner Kubilius chaired an Implementation Dialogue with industry, which further refined priorities based on real-world feedback. 

• The interim evaluation finds that the EDF is playing a crucial role in addressing fragmentation and boosting collaboration by fostering unprecedented cross-border defence R&D cooperation across the EU with over 1,300 unique entities involved, of which SMEs represent 43%.
• The EDF is developing next-generation defence technologies that address critical gaps in all domains, with over 50 prototypes expected to be developed.
• The evaluation also highlights the EDF’s role in supporting defence innovation through EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS).
• The socio-economic returns of the EDF public investments are expected to generate long-term increases in EU GDP.
• The evaluation also points at the need for administrative simplification.
• The rapidly deteriorating strategic context has demonstrated that the EDF is a not a ‘should have’ but a ‘must have’ programme, as it is necessary to invest more in defence R&D now to ensure that future state-of-the-art capabilities are delivered on time. 

• The EDF is a key instrument for supporting competitive and collaborative defence projects; it is also currently the main defence-specific programme funded by the EU budget.
• The Omnibus proposes simplification in access to EDF funding — notably by clarifying and simplifying the criteria for EU support of the projects.
• The goal is to enable faster, more inclusive project implementation, and reduce administrative burden on applicants and participants, which is especially valuable for smaller industrial players participating in cross-border consortia.

• The proposed changes will significantly lower the administrative burden on Member States for around 25% of all procurement procedures currently falling under the EU defence procurement rules (by raising the application threshold).
• The proposal also streamlines defence public procurement by introducing more flexible procedures including simplified rules for common procurement by multiple Member States and specific procedures for the procurement of innovative products.
• Thanks to this proposal Member States will be able to rely on simple and agile procedures better suited for the massive investments needed to build-up their defence readiness.

• Lengthy and complex intra-EU defence transfer authorisation procedures at national level can seriously impede cross-border cooperation within the EU. For instance, in multiple projects funded by the EDF such issues have led to important delays in project implementation, reaching up to almost one-year maximum delay caused exclusively by issues related to transfer authorisations.
• It is thus important to require the introduction of General Transfer Licences for the implementation of EDF funded projects and to further reduce the administrative burden by replacing various national End User Certificates required by national authorities by a standard clause in the EDF grant agreement.
• The Omnibus package thus proposes to enlarge and harmonise the scope of the General Transfer Licences already existing, to reward and incentivise certification, which shows that entities have implemented performant compliance programmes, by allowing certified entities to benefit from a General Transfer Licences as suppliers and not only as recipients.
• To further facilitate and speed up transfers in the supply chains, it is also important to take effective steps to ensure that Member States refrain from imposing re-export limitations for component to be integrated in a final product in another Member State.