What is SAFE?
Security Action for Europe (SAFE) is the EU financial instrument providing long-maturity loans to Member States to support urgent and strategic investments in defence.
SAFE helps Member States strengthen defence capabilities, increase readiness and resilience, and reinforce Europe’s defence industrial capacity through greater cooperation and joint procurement.
- Loan€150.00€150 bn loan envelope
- Member States19.0019 Member States Submitted defence investment plans
- Component costs%65.00At least 65% of component costs must originate in the EU, Ukraine or eligible EEA/EFTA countries.
Why SAFE ?
Europe needs to strengthen its defence readiness and ensure that Member States can respond rapidly to a changing security environment.
SAFE provides financial support to accelerate defence investment while encouraging joint procurement, stronger industrial cooperation and greater interoperability across Europe.
By pooling demand and supporting European defence production, SAFE aims to:
- strengthen Europe's defence readiness and capabilities;
- accelerate the delivery of critical defence equipment;
- reduce fragmentation between national defence markets;
- strengthen Europe's defence industrial and technological base;
- support economies of scale through joint procurement.
SAFE combines EU-level financing with national defence investment plans and collaborative procurement.
4 points
To maximise impact and reduce fragmentation, projects are generally based on common procurement involving at least two countries, including at least one Member State benefiting from SAFE. Ukraine and EEA-EFTA countries can participate under the relevant conditions.
However, in light of current geopolitical realities, SAFE also temporarily supports procurements by individual Member States to ensure the timely delivery of critical defence assets.
What SAFE funds?
SAFE focuses investment on priority defence capabilities that address Europe's most urgent capability needs and strengthen Europe's industrial capacity.
Latest news
On 12 August 2026, Estonia received its first payment of €351.6 million under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence instrument, representing 15% of its total allocation of €2.3 billion.
On 23 July 2026, Greece received its first payment of €118.2 million under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence instrument, representing 15% of its total allocation of €787.7 million.
On 24 June 2026, Lithuania received its first payment of € 956.3 million under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence financing instrument, representing 15% of its total allocation of €6.4 billion.
Today, Cyprus received its first payment of €177.2 million under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence financing instrument, representing 15% of its total allocation of €1.2 billion.