EDIRPA is an EU programme aimed at incentivising cooperation in defence procurement between Member States to jointly coordinate and acquire the most urgent and critical defence product needs, especially those amplified from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The EDIRPA Instrument, with a total budget of EUR 310 million, will facilitate access for all Member States to defence products being urgently needed. By rewarding defence procurement cooperation among Member States, EDIRPA aims to offset the complexity often associated with common procurement.
On 14 November 2024, the European Commission has approved funding for five cross-border projects to support more coordinated and efficient defence procurement among EU Member States. The five projects relate to the common procurement of Air and Missile Defence systems, Ammunition and Platforms.
Further information, including factsheets for the projects selected for funding is available below in the Useful Resources section.
EDIRPA in detail
At the informal meeting in Versailles on 11 March 2022, EU Heads of State and Government committed to bolstering European defence capabilities and agreed that Member States should substantially increase defence expenditure, develop collaborative investment in joint projects and joint procurement of defence capabilities, boost innovation, and strengthen and develop the EU defence industry.
Aggregating EU demand on a wider scale will provide the EU defence industry with stronger and more long-term signals to ramp-up its manufacturing capacities and make the defence market ready to face a changed security environment.
Buying more, together and European will also improve the interoperability of EU defence systems and capabilities.
On July 19 2022, the Commission proposed a regulation establishing the European defence industry reinforcement through common procurement act (EDIRPA). The Regulation was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 18 October 2023.
On 15 March 2024, the Commission adopted the EDIRPA Work Programme and launched the respective calls for proposal in three areas:
- Ammunition (e.g. small arms, artillery ammunition, mortars, rockets);
- Air and missile defence;
- Platforms and replacement of legacy systems.
These funding priorities have been set up together with the Member States to address urgent defence needs and replenish defence stockpiles.
By the submission deadline of 25 July, Member States and Norway submitted 12 proposals in response to the EDIRPA call for proposals.
EDIRPA aims at incentivising Member States to commonly procure defence products for which there is an urgent and critical need, especially those amplified following the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
EDIRPA also aims at strengthening the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) – and by providing predictability - to increase its manufacturing capacity and face the increase in demand of defence equipment. It will also lead to increased interoperability between the armed forces of the Member States.
The EDIRPA work programme reflects the shared political will and the needs identified together with the Member States/Norway to establish funding priorities for the replenishment of defence stockpiles, the reinforcement of capabilities and the replacement of Soviet-era legacy equipment.
The funding priorities align with the capability gaps identified in the Joint Communication on the Defence Investment Gaps Analysis and Way Forward of 18 May 2022.
The work programme identifies three calls for proposals with a total indicative budget of EUR 310 million, in the following areas:
- A call for proposals for common procurement of ‘Ammunition’ with a budget of EUR 103.2 million.
- A call for proposals on ‘Air and Missile Defence’ with a budget of EUR 103.2 million.
- A call for proposals on ‘Legacy Systems and Platforms’ with a budget of EUR 103.2 million.
The programme does not aim to substitute national defence budgets, but to incentivize cooperation for the most urgent defence products.
The EU financial support is not related to the procurement of the defence capabilities but is envisaged to cover ‘cooperation cost’ between Member States for procurements that are of much larger financial magnitude than the EDIRPA contribution.
The programme supports the procurement of defence capabilities by the armed forces of the EU Member States and Norway. Neither the EU, nor the Commission will procure defence products.
The EDIRPA programme is a short-term urgency instrument as a consequence of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine that lasts in 2024 and 2025.
On 5 March, the Commission adopted a proposal for new defence industry programme (EDIP), which also included the continuation of actions in support of common procurement of defence capabilities by the EU Member States.
The European Commission will publish and open for submission the calls for proposals in the next days on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
Potential applicants (national procurement authorities, the European Defence Agency or an international organisation designated to conduct a common procurement) can submit proposals by 25 July 2024 and the Commission services will then evaluate the proposals received. The highest scored proposals within the available budget will be selected for funding. Awarded projects, composed of consortia of at least 3 Member States, will then receive EU grants.
Under the EDIRPA Regulation, Member States can make Ukraine and Moldova a recipient of quantities of the defence products concerned by the collaborative procurement action.
There is no possible duplication between the European Peace Facility (EPF) and the EDIRPA funding. The EPF is an off-budget programme outside the frame of the Multiannual Financial Framework currently used to reimburse Member States transfer of mainly in-stock and/or in-service defence systems to Ukraine. EDIRPA support is not linked to the cost of the procured capabilities but covers the cooperation cost related to common procurements.
