Introduction
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 undeniably transformed Europe’s security landscape and underscored the criticality of alliances to ensure collective security. Recent events both in Ukraine and shifting US priorities have underlined the criticality of ensuring pan-European resilience and cooperation.
On the 19 March 2025, the Commission and the High Representative presented a White Paper for European Defence to the European Commission. Alongside this, as part of the ReArm Europe Plan, a package to drive investment in defence has also been presented.
This comes on the back of the publication of the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and the associated European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), which aim to develop the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) to enhance its resilience. To achieve this, the EU is deploying a dual strategy by offering financial support mechanisms to EU-based companies, and by progressively mandating Member States to include non-commercial criteria (such as the origin or proportion of EU content) into tenders.
The White Paper
The White Paper published on the 19 March provides a framework for the ReArm Europe plan, laying out the steps to rebuild European defence, address capability gaps, support Ukraine and establish a strong and competitive defence industrial base. It identifies Russia and China as key strategic threats to European security, whilst also mentioning the potential impacts of geopolitical instability in the Middle East, and extremism across Africa.
It sets out seven priority capability areas to build European defence, named as:
- Air and missile defence
- Artillery systems
- Ammunition and missiles
- Drones and counter-drone systems
- Military mobility
- AI quantum, Cyber and Electronic Warfare
- Strategic enablers and critical infrastructure protection
The White Paper also commits to immediately launching a strategic dialogue with the defence industry to identify regulatory hurdles and address industry challenges. In order to build the European defence industry, the White Paper states that there is a need to increase investment in and sourcing from the EU industrial sector, with a commitment to take into account a recommendation to introduce a “European preference” to the EU directive on defence and sensitive security procurement which is scheduled for 2026.
The White Paper identifies the following areas of focus to build the European defence industry:
- Aggregating demand to ramp up defence industrial production capacity
- Reducing dependencies and ensuring security of supply
- Building a true UE-wide Market for Defence equipment, simplifying and harmonising rules
- Transforming defence through disruptive innovation (which will include a European Armament Technological Roadmap)
- Securing the skills and talent to innovate.
The White Paper contains a section on the importance of cooperation with Partners to tackle challenges of European defence, and states that NATO is the cornerstone of collective defence in Europe. Although only a very short paragraph, the White Paper names the UK as an “essential European ally with which cooperation on security and defence should be enhanced in mutual interest, starting with a potential Security and Defence Partnership”.
ReArm Europe Plan
The ReArm Europe plan contains six pillars which are intended to address the most immediate needs to step up European defence spending:
- A new, dedicated financial instrument to support Member States’ defence investments.
- This will include a €150bn loan scheme known as SAFE (Security Action for Europe). This will only be open to companies from EU Member States, or from companies from countries that have signed a defence agreement with the EU.
- The coordinated activation of the National Escape Clause of the Stability and Growth pact.
- This will allow for deviation from the agreed expenditure path to increase defence expenditure.
- Making existing EU instruments more flexible to allow for greater defence investment.
- Contributions from the European Investment Bank.
- The EIB intends to introduce changes to further widen the scope of its defence-related funding, and double its annual investment to €2bn.
- Mobilising private capital.
- Financial predictability.
What does this mean for the UK?
Without the presence of a UK-EU defence and security pact, these initiatives are creating barriers for UK industrial involvement in key capability areas where the UK has historically contributed to European security. As a result, cutting-edge technology offerings from the UK may face disadvantages when competing against less mature EU offerings. Given the priority of ensuring the collective security of European democracies, the UK should strongly encourage its European partners to include UK companies in frameworks to strengthen European resilience
The UK and the EU face shared challenges that necessitate a pragmatic and robust defence and security cooperation. Negotiating a UK-EU defence and security pact with industrial dimensions is therefore a shared, and urgent, strategic imperative. This pact must enhance collective security and reap diplomatic benefits; strengthen economic prosperity across Europe; and nurture technological advancement at pace.
The UK-EU reset process is very welcome, and the UK is clearly looking to deepen cooperation with the EU. The reset must deliver a comprehensive UK-EU defence and security pact as a matter of urgency that also has an industrial dimension to foster deeper collaboration across pan-European supply chains, and ensure that both the UK and EU are able to continue to support Ukraine. It should cover shared capability challenges, streamline regulatory frameworks where interests align, improve recognition of professional qualifications (MRPQs) for key regulated roles, and enable the UK’s high-value participation in critical EU programmes. This should include a formal mechanism for UK-EU dialogue on defence, robust legal and technical arrangements for secure information-sharing, and a clear framework to protect export controls and intellectual property (IP) rights. Closer cooperation and, where possible, UK involvement in, PESCO, the European Defence Fund (EDF), and European Defence Agency (EDA) projects would reinforce broader European security.
The agreement should also emphasise complementarity between EU and NATO efforts, enabling the fullest possible involvement of NATO Allies that are not EU Member States. Finally, the security pact proposed by the Government should facilitate continued operational coordination between UK and EU security agencies, with particular emphasis on intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism, and cybersecurity. Consideration should also be given to the establishment of formal consultation mechanisms that allow the UK to inform EU defence and security policy formation, while maintaining sovereign decision-making on both sides.
The EU Summit in the UK in May is a key opportunity to advance this, as well as non-governmental events such as the ASD Convention, which this year will be hosted in London in May by ADS. Our sectors can serve as channels for practical cooperation that builds trust and demonstrates mutual benefit, creating positive momentum for the broader reset.
ADS has recently submitted to a House of Commons inquiry into the UK contribution to European Security (which can be found on the members site), and is currently responding to the House of Lords inquiry on the UK-EU reset.
