Some EU countries are poised to seek additional funding under the 150 billion-euro Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defense loan instrument if Italy reduces its planned participation, a Commission spokesman said.
The announcement comes as it is said to be Italy taking into account reducing its request for SAFE loans from €15 billion to less than €5 billion due to internal political pressure against military spending in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.
If Italy reduces the amount it is asking for, the Commission said it would free up funds for other EU countries.
“In that case, we will continue within the SAFE framework, of course, using this instrument and we will have the possibility to launch a second allocation,” said a Commission spokesman.
“We also have some member states that would be extremely interested in seeking some additional credit, where necessary,” the spokesman added.
A total of 19 countries applied for access to the scheme last year. So far, only six EU countries – Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, Belgium and Cyprus – have officially signed SAFE loan agreements.
Meanwhile, the May 31 deadline for countries to submit loan applications covering purely national procurement projects has expired. Countries that failed to declare such projects before the deadline can now claim SAFE funding only for joint procurement initiatives.
However, the Commission emphasized that SAFE was never intended to support national procurement programs.
“It has always been about joint procurement,” the spokesman said, noting that only a very small number of countries had planned single-country projects.
Among the exceptions is Polandthe largest beneficiary of SAFE loans. Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, the Polish government’s plenipotentiary for the SAFE Instrument, recently announced that more than 90% of the €43.7 billion in loans allocated to Poland “will go to Polish companies and end-to-end production will be in Poland.”
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