Ester Sabatino
In the last three and a half years, the EU has stepped up efforts to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base, aiming to ensure its members can meet their defence requirements. The mantra of EU defence cooperation has been to spend more, better, together, and to reduce dependencies on third countries. But are countries ready to reduce reliance on the US?
Europe is ready to take on greater responsibility for its defence, and it recognises the ‘right and reason’ for the United States to shift its strategic priorities, according to European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, speaking on a recent visit to the US. The commissioner noted that the European Union is not in a position to direct member states’ acquisitions and suggested that Europe’s increased defence spending will not necessarily reduce cooperation with the US.
EU mechanisms to sustain the European Defence Technology and Industrial Base (EDTIB) include conditions on the involvement of third countries and third-country entities. This is the case not only for older frameworks, such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation and the European Defence Fund, but also for the latest instruments, such as the Security Action for Europe (SAFE), which was established in May 2025.
For non-EU actors, these requirements can be unappealing or unworkable, particularly in cases where external players have long-standing cooperative partnerships with EU states and have a well-developed and capable defence-industrial sector. Indeed, EU activities are often considered, particularly by the US, to discourage third-party involvement. This is partly due to the requirements that Washington’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations places on export recipients of US-manufactured defence materiel.
Many European countries have and continue to rely on the US for key defence platforms. This reliance, however, risks running counter to the effort to bolster the continent’s defence-industrial base.
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