Roadmap for European Defence Readiness

Practical Information:

• Administrator: Ioannis DIAMANTOPOULOS /Joana LOPES VILELA
• Contact: e-mail

Background

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its repercussions for European and global security in a changing environment constitute an existential challenge for the European Union. Europe must become more sovereign, more responsible for its own defence and better equipped to act and deal autonomously and in a coordinated way with immediate and future challenges and threats.

To deliver on its objective of decisively ramping up Europe’s defence readiness within the next five years, the European Commission adopted the Joint white paper for European Defence Readiness 2030 and the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) legislative initiative in March 2025.

The European leaders at the June 2025 European Council indicated that the European Council will review progress and discuss next steps in the implementation of the defence readiness objective at the October 2025 European Council meeting. To that end they have invited the Commission and the High Representative to present a roadmap for defence readiness.

This roadmap was adopted by the College of Commissioners on 16 October 2025 ahead of the 23-24 October European Council.

A preliminary document distributed by the European Commission to the EU leaders at the informal Copenhagen summit in early October 2025 included the proposal of four defence projects: 1) European network of anti-drone measures ("drone wall"), 2) Eastern Flank Watch, which aims to detect threats ranging from hybrid operations to drone incursions; 3) Air Defence Shield, a collaborative effort by EU and other European nations to enhance air and missile defense capabilities; and 4) Defence Space Shield, which aims to keep the bloc competitive in space domain awareness to monitor threats. Proposed European defence projects should benefit the whole bloc.

The roadmap for European defence readiness heavily depends on a strong defence industry, in particular as relates to strengthening deterrence capacities and filling capability gaps to meet the 2030 readiness objectives. The European defence technological and industrial base across the Union needs to be strengthened so that it is in a position to better produce and supply equipment in the quantities and at the accelerated pace needed. The roadmap is expected to propose further actions to enable the European defence industry to scale up production.