SEDE Opinion on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2027

03.09.2026

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

Chair

Committee on Budgets

BRUSSELS

Subject: SEDE Opinion on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2027 (SEDE/10/06039 – 2026/0196(BUD))

Dear Mr Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Security and Defence has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting of 14 July 2026 SEDE Coordinators decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter. On the basis of a draft prepared by the rapporteur, Mārtiņš Staķis, the Committee adopted the opinion at its meeting of 2 September 2026.

Yours sincerely,

Marie-Agnes STRACK-ZIMMERMANN

The Committee on Security and Defence calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Reaffirms that the 2027 budget, as the final year of the 2021 - 2027 MFF, must consolidate the Union's shift towards defence readiness; stresses that Europe faces an unprecedented convergence of security pressures linking internal and external security: Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, a shift in the United States' security posture, escalating hybrid attacks, cyberattacks, incursions into EU airspace, terrorist attacks, serious international organised crime, instrumentalization of migration and foreign interference that no Member State can counter alone; underlines that the White Paper for European Defence — Readiness 2030 and the ReArm Europe Plan are the direct institutional response and must be reflected in 2027 and onwards budgetary choices; emphasises that strengthening the Union's security and defence also requires enhanced support for civilian CSDP missions, including in the areas of the rule of law, law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation, recognising that effective crisis management requires a comprehensive approach combining military and civilian instruments.

2. Welcomes that Member States' defence spending increased by 47% between 2022 and 2025 according to the European Defence Agency; observes that the increase in defence spending does not necessarily lead to deeper European integration nor stops market fragmentation; regrets the lack of reliable statistical data on the development of the single market for defence, especially regarding the implementation of the EU defence transfer and procurement directives; calls on the Commission to address this data gap as a matter of priority;

3. Notes that the entire remaining commitment margin under the Heading 5 ceiling amounts to EUR 13.6 million; regrets that the Single Margin Instrument Article 11(1), point (a) is fully exhausted in the draft budget, leaving no additional flexibility mechanism available for defence reinforcement;

4. Observes that the next MFF 2028-2034 relocates all defence programmes to Heading 2; underlines that 2027 is therefore the final year in which the Committee exercises direct budgetary authority over dedicated defence lines and that the available margin must accordingly be directed towards priorities that deliver the greatest impact on European defence readiness, capability development and strategic resilience;

5. Underlines that the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have demonstrated the decisive operational role of drones, electronic warfare, cyber capabilities and other disruptive technologies in modern combat; stresses that rapid investment in emerging and disruptive defence solutions has become a precondition of European defence readiness; further stresses that ensuring cost-effective air and missile defence, including through the accelerated development and deployment of layered air defence systems, counter-UAS capabilities and directed energy weapons (DEWs), is essential to counter increasingly affordable and mass-produced aerial threats; calls on the Commission to proceed without delay to the next step identified in its own Action Plan — the upgrade of the Counter-UAS Living Lab into a full EU Counter-Drone Centre of Excellence — ensuring that Ukrainian operational expertise is systematically integrated into its work programme; emphasises that this requires the rapid testing, validation and integration of emerging technologies into defence capabilities, alongside continuous engagement with the European defence innovation ecosystem, as well as the need to accelerate the delivery of all operational capabilities; recalls that these technologies must be developed and deployed in full compliance with international law, including international humanitarian law, and in accordance with the Union's values and principles, ensuring appropriate human oversight and accountability within the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP);

6. Stresses that strengthening the Union's security and defence requires a comprehensive approach addressing not only military threats but also terrorism, organised crime, cyber and hybrid threats, through reinforced law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation; calls for enhanced support for civilian CSDP missions to promote the rule of law, human rights, access to justice and effective criminal justice systems, recognising their essential contribution to crisis management, conflict prevention and post-conflict stabilisation, particularly in Ukraine, Moldova, the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel; underlines the need to strengthen Member States' capabilities in the fields of cyber resilience, hybrid threats, law enforcement and criminal justice under the EU's integrated approach to crisis management and through closer coordination between civilian and military CSDP missions;

7. Notes that the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have highlighted the need for the Union to strengthen its capacity to generate timely strategic situational awareness and intelligence;

8. Underlines that the Union's intelligence architecture remains largely dependent on national capabilities and the willingness of Member States to share information, and therefore stresses the urgent need to strengthen mechanisms for information sharing and intelligence cooperation, including cross-border pattern recognition in order to support fast and informed decision-making;

9. Highlights the strategic role of space capabilities in enabling military operations, situational awareness and the resilience of European defence; calls for increased investment in secure space-based infrastructure and enhanced space situational awareness to ensure the continuity and strategic autonomy of critical European satellite services in times of crisis and conflict;

10. Welcomes the provisional agreement of 15 July 2026 on the Regulation establishing the Programme for Agile and Rapid Defence Innovation (AGILE) as the first Union instrument offering rapid, flexible grants directly to individual companies with a targeted time-to-grant of four months, and opening the possibility for Ministries of Defence to purchase the resulting solutions directly; stresses that AGILE is intended to significantly accelerate innovation cycles for emerging defence products developed by SMEs, while addressing the urgent capability needs of Member States and associated countries; notes that all EUR 115 million in AGILE commitment appropriations remain in reserve under Article 49 of the Financial Regulation; notes further that AGILE is financed through redeployment, including EUR 35 million drawn from the component of the European Defence Industry Programme initially allocated to support actions targeting SMEs; calls on the Commission to present a long term strategic plan on financial support for defence industry going beyond 2030 and provide new legislative initiatives with fresh funds rather than cutting existing programmes and re-deploying funds;

11. Recalls that the EDIP Regulation (EU) 2025/2643 establishes an indicative allocation of at least EUR 150 million for the Fund Accelerating the defence Supply Chains Transformation (FAST) over the 2025-2027 programme period; proposes therefore to direct part of the margin available under the Heading 5 in support of SMEs and innovative companies and start-ups in the European defence sector, including by facilitating the industrialisation and market uptake of the results of joint R&D initiatives; invites the Commission to deploy this amount where it can achieve the greatest strategic impact, following an assessment of the expected strategic and operational impact of the remaining funding, to consider reallocating this amount to the AGILE programme where such allocation would provide a greater contribution to European defence innovation, capability development and defence readiness, if practically and legally feasible;

12. Reiterates its unconditional support for Ukraine; welcomes the Ukraine Support Loan of up to EUR 90 billion enabling Member States to invest jointly in key defence capabilities; welcomes also the EUR 107 million in payment appropriations under the Ukraine Support Instrument (line 13 08 02), reflecting the programme's accelerating delivery of direct support to Ukraine's defence industrial base; calls on the Council and the Commission to continue exploring ways in which the frozen Russian assets can be deployed in support of Ukraine;

13. Stresses that the forthcoming entry into force of the Military Mobility framework regulation and of the CEF 2028-2034 regulation make 2027 a critical transition year requiring uninterrupted payment flows for projects committed under the current CEF Regulation; calls on the Commission to ensure that the transition provisions fully cover payment obligations arising from commitments made under the current MFF, and to present to the budgetary authority before Q1 2028 a project-by-project mapping of outstanding Military Mobility commitments and their projected payment profile for 2028-2030; proposes in this regard to allocate part of the margin available under Heading 5 to Military Mobility under line 13 04 01 (Military Mobility), recognising its essential contribution to the Union's security and defence objectives, the rapid movement of military personnel and assets across the Union, and the development of resilient dual-use transport infrastructure; calls on the Commission to deploy these additional appropriations to projects with the highest European added value and the greatest strategic impact; reiterates its position that resources allocated to military mobility within the next MFF be drastically increased to bring them into line with the estimated investment need of at least EUR 100 billion for addressing the 500 hotspots identified in the EU as needing urgent upgrading, and that at least the indicated amount of EUR 17 billion for military mobility in the next MFF be preserved;

14. Recognises that the growing scale, sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks and hybrid threats require a more coordinated and integrated European response, combining prevention, preparedness, detection, response and recovery; notes that the Commission removed all 15 additional external staff positions requested by the EEAS — including 10 positions specifically earmarked for the EU Cyber Defence Coordination Centre — by applying uniformly a 2% non-salary expenditure cap, without distinguishing between ordinary administrative costs and operationally critical security and defence requirements;

15. Welcomes the official launch of the EU Cyber Defence Coordination Centre on 1 July 2026 as the successor to the PESCO Cyber and Information Domain Coordination Centre and as the Union's essential instrument for connecting fragmented national cyber intelligence, coordinating crisis responses and ensuring complementarity with NATO; notes with concern that the CDCC is working towards Initial Operational Capability by mid-2027 and requires a phased and predictable staffing increase to reach that milestone; deeply regrets that the Commission removed the 10 positions specifically requested for the CDCC; calls for the reinstatement of the 10 positions requested for the EU CDCC, financed by redeployment within Section X;

16. Underlines that European strategic autonomy requires not only ambition but capability; stresses that the Union cannot credibly claim to be a defence actor without a genuine military strategic headquarters able to plan and conduct the full spectrum of military operations; considers that the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) must evolve into a fully-fledged EU-level command and control structure, and that the repeated failure to resource the MPCC in line with the PSC-endorsed business case represents a direct contradiction between the Union's stated ambitions under the White Paper for European Defence - Readiness 2030 and its budgetary choices; calls for the full reinforcement of the MPCC, including the necessary staffing, secure communications and IT infrastructure;

17. Welcomes the announcement by the EEAS of a possible civilian CSDP mission to Lebanon; underlines the potential contribution such a mission could make to strengthening the capacities of the Lebanese state, including in the areas of border management, the rule of law and civilian security; insists that, should such a mission be established, adequate and predictable appropriations be included in the 2027 Union budget to ensure its rapid deployment and effective functioning, including the provision of the necessary financial, human and operational resources to fulfil its mandate effectively;

18. Reaffirms its support for Operation ASPIDES and calls for adequate and predictable appropriations in the 2027 Union budget to ensure its continued operational effectiveness and the resources necessary to fulfil its mandate;

19. Insists that increased ambition in security and defence must be matched by adequate implementation capacity; stresses that fragmented national procurement delivers less capability at greater cost; reiterates that enhanced cooperation within a single market for defence could lead to enormous efficiency savings of up to 30 % of annual defence spending across the EU; calls for the next MFF to structurally embed joint EU procurement as the default logic for European defence investment.

20. Calls for closer coordination between the Member States' Foreign Affairs, Defence, Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, as well as the relevant Council formations, in order to strengthen the Union's ability to address the growing nexus between internal and external security and to respond more effectively to evolving security threats, including hybrid threats, cyberattacks, terrorism and organised crime.