European Defence Agency portfolio swells under bloc’s defense ambition

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The European Defence Agency enters its third decade with a beefed-up mandate and record spending, as officials face mounting pressure to transform political ambitions into combat-ready capabilities.

The agency now oversees five core tasks – up from three – including joint procurement facilitation and defense innovation coordination, the agency said in its annual report , released this week. The update follows a May 2024 landmark Long-Term Review endorsed by EU defense ministers, who pledged to increase collaborative spending amid concerns over industrial fragmentation and technological gaps.

EU defense expenditure was projected to have reached €326 billion, or $361 billion, in 2024 (1.9% of GDP), a 30% increase since 2021. Almost a third (31%) now flows to defense investments, primarily the procurement of new equipment.

Nonetheless, Europe still spends less than 0.05% of its GDP on defense research and technology – a fraction of U.S. and Chinese investments. “Buying together saves money, while developing assets together makes us more independent,” said Jiří Šedivý, the Agency’s chief executive, last December.

The agency’s expanded role includes managing around 200 projects worth €681 million, from the Low Earth Orbit satellite demonstrator to the multinational procurement of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine. Ten countries have ordered over €350 million worth of ammunition through EDA’s fast-track mechanism, with first deliveries reaching Kyiv in May 2024.

“The European defence base remains fragmented, characterised by a lack of joint procurement and national preferences for defence spending. This results in small, localised markets with relatively low production numbers,” Šedivý told a February 2025 European Economic and Social Committee forum. One of the EDA’s key objectives is to neutralize this European disadvantage and instead play to the Union’s strengths.

The joint procurement of weapons is one example of this, and an entirely new dimension to the EU’s capabilities that would have been unthinkable until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was formalized as one of the EDA’s tasks in May 2024. Brussels’s joint purchase of shells was the first time that the bloc had jointly made an arms purchase.

Since 2022, the European Union has become more assertive in the defense space and has made decisive moves towards increasing Brussels’ role in military matters . Just last month, EU leaders greenlit a new defense spending scheme .

Closer collaboration with Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, and the United States – albeit based on pre-Trump trends – was also in the cards, according to the EDA report.

Four landmark letters of intent were facilitated by the European Defence Agency last year. The flagship amongst them—literally—is an agreement to develop a common European combat vessel by 2040. The ECV is meant to “protect trade routes to ensure the uninterrupted flow of goods to and from EU territory,” the Agency said in its report.

The other three big new projects cover loitering munitions, electronic warfare and an integrated air and missile defense for the continent, with the Agency working to coordinate procurement and conduct research into disruptive technologies to give Europe a leg up on threats only just beginning to emerge.

Despite the increase in scope and subsequent back-patting in its annual self-assessment, some challenges do remain for the EDA. For one, the EU’s stated goal to make 35% of all defense procurements collaboratively is likely still ambitious, with the most recent numbers from 2021 putting it at 18%.

“The urge to swiftly address capability shortfalls through readily available military equipment has led to a surge of national off-the-shelf acquisitions, causing a temporary slowdown of collaborative procurement,” the EDA wrote in its end-of-2024 report last December.

As the Agency prepares to move into its brand new, purpose-built Brussels headquarters by 2027, its test will be converting ministerial declarations into deployable capabilities. With the European Defence Fund allocating €1 billion for 2025 R&D projects – including AI-enabled systems and dual-use technologies – the agency will see growing importance, but also increased pressure to deliver strategically relevant results.

“As Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine enters its fourth year, the need for a strong, resilient, and coordinated European defence is greater than ever,” Šedivý said in his recap of the past year. The EU must be able to defend itself, he added -- “alone, if necessary. This new era demands bold decisions and action.”

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

荷兰海牙——欧洲防务局进入第三个十年，其任务范围扩大，支出创历史新高，官员们面临着越来越大的压力，需要将政治抱负转化为可投入战斗的能力。

该机构本周发布的年度报告称，其目前负责五项核心任务（此前为三项），包括促进联合采购和协调国防创新。此次更新是在欧盟国防部长于2024年5月批准的一项具有里程碑意义的长期评估之后进行的。欧盟国防部长承诺，鉴于对产业碎片化和技术差距的担忧，将增加合作支出。

预计到 2024 年，欧盟国防开支将达到 3260 亿欧元（约合 3610 亿美元）（占 GDP 的 1.9%），比 2021 年增长 30%。目前，近三分之一（31%）的国防开支用于国防投资，主要用于采购新装备。

尽管如此，欧洲在国防研发和技术方面的支出仍然不到其GDP的0.05%，远低于美国和中国的投资。“联合采购可以省钱，而联合开发资产则能让我们更加独立自主，”欧洲国防工业局局长伊日·谢迪维去年12月表示。

该机构扩大后的职能包括管理约200个项目，总价值达6.81亿欧元，涵盖从低地球轨道卫星演示验证项目到为乌克兰采购155毫米炮弹的多国合作项目。已有十个国家通过欧洲防务局的快速通道机制订购了价值超过3.5亿欧元的弹药，首批弹药将于2024年5月运抵基辅。

“欧洲防务基础依然分散，缺乏联合采购，各国在国防开支方面各有所偏好。这导致市场规模小、地域性强，产量相对较低，” Šedivý 在 2025 年 2 月的欧洲经济和社会委员会论坛上表示。欧洲防务局 (EDA) 的主要目标之一就是消除欧洲的这一劣势，转而发挥欧盟的优势。

联合采购武器便是其中一例，它为欧盟的能力开辟了一个全新的维度，这在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之前是不可想象的。2024年5月，联合采购武器被正式列为欧洲防务局（EDA）的任务之一。布鲁塞尔此次联合采购炮弹是欧盟首次进行联合武器采购。

自2022年以来，欧盟在国防领域变得更加强势，并采取了果断措施，以提升布鲁塞尔在军事事务中的作用。就在上个月，欧盟领导人批准了一项新的国防开支计划。

根据EDA的报告，与瑞士、挪威、乌克兰和美国更紧密的合作——尽管是基于特朗普之前的趋势——也在考虑之中。

去年，欧洲防务局促成了四份具有里程碑意义的意向书。其中最重要的一项——名副其实的旗舰项目——是到2040年开发一种通用欧洲作战舰艇的协议。该机构在其报告中指出，这种通用欧洲作战舰艇旨在“保护贸易航线，确保货物进出欧盟领土畅通无阻”。

其他三个大型新项目涵盖巡飞弹、电子战以及欧洲大陆的综合防空和导弹防御，该机构致力于协调采购并开展颠覆性技术的研究，以使欧洲在应对刚刚开始出现的威胁方面占据优势。

尽管欧洲防务局（EDA）的职责范围扩大，并在年度自我评估中对其成果大加赞赏，但其仍面临一些挑战。例如，欧盟提出的35%国防采购合作目标可能仍然过于雄心勃勃，2021年的最新数据显示，这一比例仅为18%。

美国国防采办署 (EDA) 在去年 12 月发布的 2024 年底报告中写道：“急于通过现成的军事装备迅速解决能力不足的问题，导致各国大量采购现成装备，造成合作采购暂时放缓。”

随着欧洲防务局准备在2027年迁入位于布鲁塞尔的全新专用总部大楼，它将面临一项考验：如何将部长级宣言转化为可部署的能力。欧洲防务基金已拨款10亿欧元用于2025年的研发项目——包括人工智能系统和两用技术——这将使该机构的重要性日益凸显，同时也意味着其在交付具有战略意义的成果方面将面临更大的压力。

“随着俄罗斯对乌克兰的侵略战争进入第四年，建立强大、有韧性且协调一致的欧洲防御体系的需求比以往任何时候都更加迫切，”谢迪维在回顾过去一年时说道。他补充说，欧盟必须有能力自卫——“必要时甚至可以独立自卫。这个新时代需要大胆的决策和行动。”

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。