NBB 2025-5: ‘EU ready for war by 2030’ plans

The latest issue of the ENAAT newsletter ‘News from the Brussels’ Bubble’ is now available here.

Summary: 

EU funding for the arms industry

  • SAFE’s €150 billion loans: useless EP complaint and access to non-EU firms
  • Negotiators aim for final agreement on EDIP by early October
  • No Israeli suspension from Horizon Europe, Rafael may (not?) lose EU funds

Other aspects of EU militarisation

  • EU ready to war by 2030? Roadmap and European Defence Semester, drone wall
  • Defence omnibus: exports rules evaluation & cohesion funds opened to arms industry
  • “EU defence spending hits €343 bln in 2024, EDA data shows”
  • EU-Japan Security & Defence Partnership includes industrial dialogue

EU Peace Facility and related news

  • Ukraine: EU countries (still) resist reimbursing US weapons with EPF
  • Djibouti Armed Forces to receive €10 million from EPF, further €15 million to Albania

more news

NBB 2026-1: Quiz, which of the EU institutions is the most arms-industry friendly?

22 January 2026

From EP’s early Christmas gifts to EC outbids to counter EDA’s revival, one wonders which of the EU institutions is the most arms industry-friendly…Read our latest newsletter here: NBB 2026-1, 16/01/26 SUMMARY ENAAT news > “Europe’s Hidden Hands: Funding and Arming the Genocide in Gaza” (Webinar series 26/01 & 02/02) > Stop Wapenhandel Blog: Weakening arms transfers rules in the name of ‘security’ and ‘competitiveness’ > Increasing concerns about civil society watchdog role at EU level > Citizens’ initiative asking the EC to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement EU support for the arms industry > EDIP & SAFE:

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Europe’s Hidden Hands: Funding and Arming the Genocide in Gaza

20 January 2026

  Two online webinars to explore the European complicity with the Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Monday 26/01, 6pm CET Monday 02/02, 6pm CET     Register here Programme Monday 26/01, 6pm CET “EU & European complicity through military cooperation and dependency”,  This session confronts Europe’s direct role in enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its decades-long military occupation of Palestine. Far from being champions of diplomacy and peace, European countries and the EU continue arms trade, military cooperation, and political cover for Israel, even as mass atrocities unfold and international law is systematically violated. We will examine how

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Weakening arms trade rules for the sake of arms dealers

15 January 2026

As part of the “Defence Readiness Omnibus’ presented in June 2025, i.e. a deregulation package for the armament sector, the European Commission is proposing to “simplify” the EU directive for arms exports inside the EU, in short the ‘Transfers directive’. A first revision of this directive had been conducted in 2016, already problematic in several respects as we warned at the time. The current revision represents a further step towards the deregulation of arms transfers, with potentially significant impacts on the control of exports outside the EU. Read our Policy Briefing Note for more information on the dangerous

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