EU finalizes $176B defense loans, with Poland taking largest share
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of a Polish service member with the country’s GROM special operations unit (Polish Army photo)
BRUSSELS - The European Union's 150 billion euros ($176 billion) in cheap loans for defence projects have been fully taken up by a total of 19 EU countries, with Poland securing the biggest part of the loans, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
The scheme, called Security Action For Europe (SAFE), is a joint borrowing scheme, backed by the EU budget to boost the EU's defence capabilities, address critical gaps, and buy defence products together to prepare for the threat of military aggression from Russia or Belarus.
"There was a lot of skepticism about possible low interest. Now we see the contrary. The interest from the member states has been a resounding success. Not only Eastern frontier countries are interested," EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told a news conference.
Poland will get the lion's share of the total at 43.7 billion euros, with Romania in second place with 16.7 billion.
Hungary and France will get 16.2 billion each, Italy 14.9 billion, Belgium 8.3 billion, Lithuania 6.4 billion, Portugal 5.8 billion and Latvia 5.7 billion, among others.
Also participating in the loans are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Slovakia and Spain. Eight EU countries did not apply for the loans because they can borrow at comparable or better rates themselves, the Commission said.
The 19 EU countries will now prepare their investment plans, to describe how they will spend the money and present them by the end of November. The Commission will then assess the plans and make the first disbursements in the first quarter of 2026, Kubilius said.
The scheme offers a 10-year grace period for loan repayment, low interest rates and makes possible agreements with countries outside the EU, like Norway, Britain or Turkey, who have defence equipment the EU is interested in.
($1 = 0.8525 euros)
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Bart Meijer // REUTERS)
