ENAAT Newsletter 2024-03: “Bullets not bees”

Our latest News from the Brussels’ Bubble is now out: ENAAT NBB 2024-03_31.05.2024

SUMMARY

EU funding for the arms industry

– Negotiations for new EU defence industry programme likely to face delay
– EU defence Fund: results of 2023 calls
– EDF: naval & space technology dominate, 2024 calls shift towards conventional warfare
– EIB revise rules to ramp-up defence investment, Nordic bank to follow suit?
– Ukraine: European and Ukrainian arms industry met in Brussels to boost cooperation
– EU Defence Agency mandate expanded to joint procurement and military interests in all policy-making

Other aspects of EU militarisation

– Leaked EU strategic agenda: “bullets not bees” says Politico
– Letta report calls for common defence market and “innovative finance”
– European Defence Industry Summit: arms lobbyists and EU leaders are best buddies
– EU conclusions on security and defence and EU-Norway defence partnership
– Schuman Security and Defence Forum

Peace facility and related news

– EU Rapid Deployment Capacity & MILEX 2024
– EPF and Ukraine: ‘technical’ and Hungarian blockages

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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