On 21 March 2022, Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers of the EU adopted the Strategic Compass, after 2 years of negotiations. Meant to be a kind of White Paper on Defence for the EU, it now remains to be seen to what extent the political commitments will actually be kept. However, what is certain is that the most concrete proposals are a new boon for the arms industry in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
OSDE 2026
2 June 2026
Who profits from EU subsidies for the arms industry? Find out below which countries and companies benefit the most from the EU Defence Fund (EDF) and the Ammunition fund (ASAP), and where they export. More information and detailed data are available in the public platform Open Security Data Europe Companies European Defence Fund (EDF) After the first three years of the EDF, about a thousand different entities (companies, research institutes, universities, government agencies and a few CSOs) have received funding. It is clear that a large portion of the money goes to a small set of large arms companies.