The decision was confirmed in Brussels on Tuesday, 13th October, by Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier, who said the updated Italian proposal had received the executive’s approval. The plan must now obtain the Council’s endorsement before the loan agreement can be signed and the first payment released.
Under the procedure outlined by the Commission, Italy would become eligible for an initial disbursement amounting to 15 per cent of its approved loan following completion of the remaining formalities. For a package worth approximately €8 billion, that would represent around €1.2 billion in initial financing.
The approval comes as European governments seek to translate commitments to increased military expenditure into procurement contracts, industrial production and operational capabilities.
Italy is among the EU’s principal defence manufacturing countries, with substantial industrial capabilities in aerospace, naval construction, electronics, military vehicles and weapons systems.
Companies including Leonardo and Fincantieri occupy important positions in multinational defence programmes, while smaller manufacturers contribute specialised equipment, components and technologies.
The Commission has emphasised Italy’s industrial importance in explaining its support for the revised plan.
Nevertheless, approval of the financing proposal does not establish precisely how the money will be distributed among manufacturers or procurement programmes. Individual contractual arrangements will depend on the projects included in the approved national plan and the relevant purchasing decisions.
Italy had previously been associated with a substantially larger indicative SAFE allocation, but its updated application concerns approximately €8 billion.
The revised amount illustrates the distinction between the borrowing capacity initially made available to member states and the financing they ultimately seek through their national investment proposals.
SAFE was established in May 2025 as part of the EU’s wider effort to improve defence readiness following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The programme provides up to €150 billion in long-term loans financed through borrowing by the European Union on international capital markets.
Unlike grants from the EU budget, these loans must be repaid by the borrowing member states. Their attraction lies principally in the financing conditions available through the Union’s borrowing arrangements.
SAFE is intended to support the procurement of equipment including ammunition, missiles, artillery systems, drones, air and missile defence systems, maritime capabilities and military mobility infrastructure.
An important feature is its emphasis on cooperation between European purchasers rather than exclusively national acquisition programmes.
Under the applicable regulation, joint procurement is generally intended to involve at least two eligible participating countries, although temporary provisions allow certain purchases by individual member states.
The rules also impose requirements concerning the geographic origin of components, reflecting the programme’s objective of increasing industrial capacity within Europe and eligible partner countries.
At least 65 per cent of component costs must originate within the permitted European and Ukrainian industrial base.
European governments have substantially increased defence expenditure, but higher budgets do not automatically resolve shortages in manufacturing capacity.
Production lines for ammunition, missiles and complex weapons systems require specialised machinery, skilled workers, component suppliers and sufficiently predictable orders to justify expansion.
Many defence companies have traditionally operated against fragmented national requirements. Different governments have purchased equipment in relatively small quantities, often imposing separate technical specifications and procurement conditions.
This fragmentation can increase costs and complicate maintenance, training and interoperability.
Brussels hopes that the combination of common financing and joint procurement will encourage member states to coordinate orders, giving manufacturers more predictable demand.
The challenge is particularly acute in air defence and precision-guided weapons, where European forces face both urgent requirements and lengthy production cycles.
SAFE can provide financing for eligible purchases, but the speed at which industry delivers equipment depends on existing capacity and the ability to expand production.
Italy’s plan now moves to the Council, where the required approval must be secured before the Commission and Italian authorities can conclude the financing agreement.
The Commission’s statement on Tuesday made clear that the initial payment is conditional upon completion of these procedures.
Once the agreement is signed, the first tranche will provide financing for investment under the programme, with subsequent payments governed by the relevant arrangements.
The scale of Italy’s participation gives the decision significance beyond its immediate financial value.
As one of the EU’s largest manufacturing economies, Italy will be an important test of whether European defence financing can generate procurement cooperation across national borders while strengthening existing industrial capacity.
The effectiveness of the programme will ultimately be measured through signed contracts, production increases and the delivery of equipment to European armed forces, rather than the headline amount of approved borrowing.
Italy’s Deficit to Rise Again as Rome Uses EU Fiscal Flexibility
American philosopher Susan Neiman's new book Call it Evil: Understanding the Trump Era has no shame as it brands Trump wicked for liking free-market capitalism while ruing the end of communism in Europe, says Chris Milton.
The post Susan Neiman’s Deranged Anti-Trump Screed Only Shows She Has No Idea What “Evil” Is appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Italian police officers are patrolling on the streets of Athens together with their Greek colleagues. The new policing program following an agreement between Greece and Italy in 2025. Greece and Italy have launched joint police patrols in Athens and Rome in August 2026, implementing the 2025 agreement to strengthen public security, prevent crime and better […]
The post Italian police officers patrolling on the streets of Athens appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
When we think of the ancient world, Greece and Rome usually come to mind, with perhaps a smattering of Cleopatra and Egypt thrown in. This is true not only for the general public but for scholars too, who have tended to keep a narrow focus on these cultures. But, as Carlos Noreña reports, we are on the brink of an exciting shift that explores the patterns of connectivity and exchange that shaped a truly global ancient world. After all, when eighth‑century Central Asian silver vessels turn up in an archaeological dig in Scotland, you have to broaden your view.
The physical geography of temperate Afro-Eurasia, then, enabled a particular configuration of long-distance connectivities. But how extensively and how deeply was this transcontinental region interconnected in antiquity? Should we see ancient Afro-Eurasia as an integrated ‘world system’? We can reconstruct the broad contours of such a system in the Middle Ages, from the middle of the first to the middle of the 2nd millennium CE. This was the world brilliantly brought to light, and to much fanfare, in the recent ‘Silk Roads’ exhibit at the British Museum in London. What made the show so remarkable was quite simply the assemblage, in a single space, of a wide assortment of premodern objects that had travelled over vast distances before settling in far-flung locales. A humble, 6th-century glass bowl from Iran was found in Nara, Japan. From a shipwreck near Sumatra in Indonesia, divers recovered a 9th-century turquoise-glazed ceramic amphora from West Asia. There were luxury goods on display, too, including a spectacular 7th-century golden necklace found in the eastern Mediterranean with lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and rock crystal from Madagascar, and a remarkable set of 8th-century ivory chess pieces from South Asia discovered in Samarkand in Uzbekistan. These long-distance connections reached into the far west of Eurasia, too, as revealed by the fragments of a 10th-century Chinese silk tunic found in Sweden, or the 8th-century Central Asian silver vessels that made their way to Scotland.
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