EU-Programm "Readiness 2030" (ehem.: "ReArm Europe")

[theoderich]

Das wird immer besser ...

Polish rearmament plan banks on US weapons bought with EU backing

Poland is seeking new joint ventures and purchases from American defense contractors that could be financed by European loans, according to Konrad Gołota, Poland’s deputy state assets minister.

“We are modernizing our Army. We are building now the biggest EU land Army, focusing on the protection of external borders, focusing very much on securing the Baltic Sea region,” Gołota said during an Dec. 5 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

Money for new military acquisitions will be sourced from the country’s defense budget which is to absorb additional funds of roughly €44 billion ($51 billion) in low-cost loans under the European Union’s Security Action For Europe (SAFE) scheme, recently allocated by Brussels.

Gołota said the Polish government wants to involve U.S. producers in additional procurements of weapons and equipment that could be bankrolled by SAFE loans.

However, Warsaw hopes to go beyond buying off-the-shelf products. Poland is planning to use the funds to finance more joint ventures and transfers of technology from American players to the Polish defense industry with the use of European loans.

“We are using a lot of American equipment,” according to Gołota. “We have spent over the years in signed contracts $60 billion in the U.S. … only in defense. So it’s a substantial expenditure. We think that the perfect matching is … when your companies, which are already cooperating with our companies, will take it one or two levels higher.”

U.S. defense industry players “need to decide which technologies they are able to transfer, and, of course, we are in dialog with the [U.S.] administration,” Gołota said.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/euro ... u-backing/


Man will die SAFE-Verordnung verwässern, damit einfach alle Rüstungsgüter, unbeschadet ihrer Herkunft, durch SAFE-Kredite gefördert werden. Nach der aktuellen Rechtslage wäre die Subventionierung amerikanischer Waffen über SAFE illegal:

VERORDNUNG (EU) 2025/1106 DES RATES

vom 27. Mai 2025

zur Festlegung des Instruments „Sicherheitsmaßnahmen für Europa (SAFE) durch die Stärkung der europäischen Verteidigungsindustrie“

Artikel 16

Förderfähigkeitsregeln für gemeinsame Beschaffungen zur Unterstützung von Investitionen für die Verteidigungsindustrie

(1) Gemeinsame Beschaffungen kommen nur dann für eine Unterstützung im Rahmen des SAFE-Instruments in Betracht, wenn sie die in diesem Artikel festgelegten Förderfähigkeitsbedingungen erfüllen.

(2) Die gemeinsamen Verfahren zur Beschaffung von Verteidigungsgütern und die entsprechenden Aufträge umfassen die in den Absätzen 3 bis 13 sowie in Absatz 15 dieses Artikels festgelegten Teilnahmebedingungen für die an der gemeinsamen Beschaffung beteiligten Auftragnehmer und Unterauftragnehmer; die Bedingungen, die in den in Artikel 17 genannten Vereinbarungen festgelegt sind, bleiben davon unberührt.

(3) An der gemeinsamen Beschaffung beteiligte Auftragnehmer und Unterauftragnehmer haben ihren Sitz sowie ihre
Leitungs- und Verwaltungsstrukturen in der Union, in einem dem EWR angehörenden EFTA-Staat oder in der Ukraine. Sie unterliegen nicht der Kontrolle durch ein Drittland, bei dem es sich weder um einen dem EWR angehörenden EFTA-Staat noch um die Ukraine handelt, oder durch einen anderen Rechtsträger eines Drittlands, der nicht in der Union, in einem dem EWR angehörenden EFTA-Staat oder in der Ukraine niedergelassen ist.

http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/1106/oj

[theoderich]

"Fatales Signal":
Folgenreicher Zolldeal zwischen USA und EU

Joint Statement on a United States-European Union Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade

The White House
August 21, 2025

[theoderich]

Baltic nations ponder biggest bang for their bucks in $14 billion arms spending spree

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are readying to spend around €12.2 billion ($14 billion) from the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) low-cost loans on new weapons, equipment and ammunition, with first contracts to be signed in the coming weeks.

Lithuania has been allocated €6.38 billion in SAFE loans, with a large portion of the funds intended to support purchases of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and ammunition from European suppliers.

For Latvia, which has secured €3.5 billion in SAFE loans, procurements of unmanned aerial systems (UAVs), anti-drone systems and missile systems are also key items on the nation’s shopping list, with priorities largely determined by the lessons drawn from the Ukraine war.

In Estonia, the country’s government recently decided to put on hold its planned procurement of infantry fighting vehicles, and instead shift the funds toward purchases of UAVs, counter-drone measures and air-defense systems. A large part of these purchases could be financed from SAFE loans in the amount of €2.34 billion that the nation has secured from the European Union.

Meanwhile, another major procurement Tallinn is advancing is related to the selection of a new missile defense system, with Estonian officials declaring plans to select between the U.S., European and Israeli offers in the coming months.

Similarly to Lithuania, Estonia is intensifying efforts to bring in weapon and ammunition producers. In March 2026, the country’s authorities announced that, in relation to Tallinn’s purchase of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, producer Lockheed Martin will open a local maintenance facility under an $11 million investment.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/euro ... ing-spree/