This Joint Communication presents a new level of ambition to build a stronger Europe in defence. It focuses in particular on the joint acquisition of military equipment, on strategic defence programming to set clearer priorities, and on the support to the European industrial base, including the strengthening of the European defence R&D framework.

The Commission and the High Representative examine three main types of gaps: defence expenditure, defence industrial gaps, and defence capability gaps:

• Defence expenditure: As a direct result to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Member States have already announced increases in their defence budgets close to an additional €200 billion in the coming years. Whilst these increases are essential, they come after years of substantial cuts and severe underinvestment. From 1999 to 2021, EU combined defence spending increased by 20% against 66% for the US, 292% for Russia and 592% for China. Without a coordinated approach, the increase in spending risks leading to further fragmentation and undo progress made until now.
• Defence industrial gaps: Despite the overall competitiveness of the sector, difficulties and gaps exist. Since demand is fragmented, the industry also remains structured along national borders, especially outside the aeronautics and missile sectors. Dependencies also exist for some key defence equipment for which the European defence industrial and technological base is not offering indigenous solutions.
• Capability gaps: three urgent priorities have been highlighted: replenishing stockpiles, replacing Soviet-era legacy systems and reinforcing air and missile defence systems. Beyond these urgent capability gaps, the Joint Communication proposes to work on a number of specific strategic medium- to long-term capabilities in the air, land, maritime, space and cyber defence domains.

In order to support the closing of the gaps, the Commission and the High Representative set out a set of very concrete measures designed to strengthen European defence demand through joint procurement and to reinforce supply through measures targeting the support to industrial manufacturing capacities.