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News: The Italian government has requested €8 billion ($9.3 billion) from the European Union’s SAFE (Security Action for Europe) Defence Fund programme.
About SAFE (Security Action for Europe) Defence Fund
- The Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument is a joint borrowing scheme by the European Union (EU).
- Backed by: It is backed by the European Union budget.
- Initiated year: It started from 29 May 2025.
- Aim: It aimed at boosting the bloc’s defence capabilities and helping member states meet new, more ambitious NATO spending targets.
- Purpose: It finances urgent and large-scale investments in the European defence technological and industrial base.
- SAFE funds priority defence products in two categories.
- For both categories, no more than 35% of component costs can come from outside the EU, EEA-EFTA, or Ukraine.
- Loans: Through it, EU is providing financial assistance in the form of loans worth up to €150 billion.
- The assistance aims to help EU member states make rapid and significant increases in their defence investments through common procurement.
- Allocation of the budget is demand-driven.
- Disbursements take the form of competitively priced long-maturity loans, to be repaid by the beneficiary EU member states.
- The following countries may also participate in common procurement but only EU member states can receive SAFE loans:
- EU acceding, candidate, and potential candidate countries
- countries that have signed Security and Defence Partnerships with the EU, such as Albania, Canada, India, Japan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
