Source: European Parliament
The President of the Commission tasked the High Representative and the Commissioner for Defence and Space to put forward a White Paper for European Defence Readiness 2030 within the first 100 days of the new mandate[1]. The College adopted it on 19 March 2025[2].
The White Paper frames a new approach to defence and defence industry and identifies related investment needs. It addresses closing critical capability gaps, ramping-up European defence production and mobilising additional funding for defence.
For the EU to provide tailored support to ramp-up defence industrial production capacities, it is important to have a clear picture of Member States’ capability targets, to translate them into industrial ones. This approach is summarised as an industrial output plan.
Following the publication of the White Paper , consultations with all key stakeholder’s kicked-off , including with Member States , the European Parliament and Defence Industry , but also partners such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
The EU will also support Member States in defining projects to address the critical capability gaps, starting with the priorities identified by the European Council on 6 March 2025.
The outcome of these consultations will determine the way forward implementation of the embedded in , including how to further support ramping-up defence industrial production capacities.
EU and NATO are in contact and hold structured dialogues on topics including emerging disruptive technologies and defence industrial matters.
Under this framework they have regularly exchanged information on relevant ongoing activities, including the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic and the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.