Strengthening the EU defence industry and innovations, including through enhanced cooperation with Ukraine

Practical information

• Composition of the Study Group
• Administrator: Ioannis DIAMANTOPOULOS
• Assistant: Joana Maria LOPES VILELA
• Contact : E-mail 

Background

Ukraine is becoming a central defence‑industrial partner for Europe. Ukraine is moving from being an aid recipient to a security provider. Ukraine has developed world‑leading battlefield innovation, especially in drones, EW, counter‑EW, battlefield robotics, and long‑range strike systems. European governments increasingly see Ukraine as a strategic partner for co‑production, joint R&D and rapid prototyping.

Ukraine’s defence industry is now viewed as an anchor for Europe’s future security, not only for Ukraine’s own defence. This is reflected in new bilateral agreements:

• Denmark–Ukraine partnership on drones and missile programmes (June 2026)
• Italy–Ukraine cooperation on defence and drone production (April 2026)
• Norway–Ukraine defence declaration expanding drone cooperation (April 2026)
• Lithuania–Ukraine joint long‑range drone production (2025)

The EU is institutionalising defence‑industrial integration with Ukraine. The European Commission’s April 2026 package (White Paper on Defence Readiness 2030, EDIP, BraveTech EU) frames Ukraine as a core partner in Europe’s long‑term defence readiness. EDIP (European Defence Industrial Programme) explicitly supports joint production with Ukraine. BraveTech EU aims to integrate Ukrainian battlefield innovation into EU capability development. The White Paper (pp.10–12) stresses that Europe must learn from Ukraine’s wartime innovation cycles and embed them into EU procurement, testing and certification.

In March 2026, the EU approved a plan to integrate Ukraine into the EU defence‑industrial base, enabling joint ventures, shared testing facilities, streamlined export controls, and coordinated procurement. This marks a shift from ad‑hoc cooperation to structured industrial integration.

Ukraine’s wartime innovation is reshaping Europe’s defence‑tech ecosystem. Ukraine has become a real‑time laboratory for military innovation, producing rapid drone iteration cycles (days, not months), battlefield‑tested AI systems, low‑cost precision strike capabilities, resilient logistics and repair models and decentralised production networks. Europe is struggling to fully leverage this experience due to slow procurement cycles, fragmented industrial standards, regulatory bottlenecks, and risk‑averse certification processes.

EU–Ukraine defence‑industrial cooperation is moving from political support to deep structural integration. Ukraine’s innovation, production capacity and wartime experience are becoming indispensable to Europe’s defence readiness, while Europe’s industrial scale and financing are essential to Ukraine’s long‑term resilience. This cooperation is now recognised as a mutually reinforcing strategic partnership, central to European security, industrial autonomy and the future of Ukraine’s defence ecosystem.

Objective 

Strengthening the EU defence industry and innovation is a top priority for achieving Europe’s defence readiness and technological competitiveness. The European Union is aiming to increase defence production capacity, encourage joint procurement among Member States, and invest in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, cyber defence, autonomous systems, and next-generation military equipment. These efforts aim to unify European defence market, improve supply-chain resilience, and fill critical capability gaps.

Enhanced cooperation with Ukraine is crucial part of this strategy. Ukraine’s experience in the battlefield and its rapid development of defence technologies, particularly in drones and anti-drone systems, electronic warfare, and modern warfare innovations, provide invaluable expertise for European partners. By integrating Ukrainian defence companies into European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), the EU can strengthen its defence ecosystem at the same time supporting Ukraine’s long-term security policy. This cooperation contributes to a more innovative, technologically advanced, and productive European defence sector capable of responding to future defence challenges.

Key aspects of such efforts include:

• Enhancing European defence production: EU is seeking to boost manufacturing capacity of ammunition, missiles, air defence systems, drones, and other critical equipment to fill capability gaps.
• Encouraging joint procurement and cooperation: EU member states should purchase equipment jointly to optimize production, lower costs and speed-up delivery.
• Boosting defence innovation: EU is increasing support to research and innovation through programs such as European Defence Fund.
• Integrating Ukraine into the European defence ecosystem: the ultimate goal is deeper industrial cooperation with Ukraine. Through the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), EU is funding cooperation between European and Ukrainian defence companies and helping modernize Ukraine's defence industrial base.  
• Learning from Ukraine's battlefield innovations: Ukraine achieved a significant expertise in drone and electronic warfare, battlefield software, and rapid defence technology development which is a valuable source of knowledge for strengthening Europe's defence capabilities.
• Creating long-term strategic resilience: the broader objective is to ensure that Europe has a reliable source of defence equipment, more competitive and technologically advanced defence industrial base and, most importantly, is capable of responding to threats from Russia and Belarus in a timely and effective manner.