TSI 2027 – Structural Support to Defence Procurement - DAEN+

Context

The EU's push for joint defence procurement stems from a recognition that Europe's defence market has been deeply fragmented along national lines, with Member States routinely invoking Article 346 TFEU exemptions to bypass competitive procurement rules, resulting in less than 20% of defence spending going through collaborative channels, far short of the EU’s 2027 target of 40%. This fragmentation drives up costs, produces duplication and capability gaps, undermines interoperability, and weakens the European defence technological and industrial base relative to competitors.

Persistent challenges include legal and procedural barriers arising from inconsistent national transpositions of Directive 2009/81/EC on defence procurement and the absence of harmonised joint procurement frameworks. Member States also face administrative capacity gaps, such as limited expertise in managing multinational negotiations, lead-nation arrangements, and EU procurement regulations. These issues are exacerbated by policy and coordination gaps, including the lack of national guidance on collaborative procurement, insufficient awareness of good practices, and limited interoperability among Member countries’ defence systems. At the same time, recently established EU instruments — such as EDIRPA, ASAP, EDIP and SAFE — are increasingly linking financial incentives to collaborative procurement, incentivising Member States to reform their legal, administrative, and operational frameworks to align with these requirements.

Objectives

Building on the earlier TSI 2026 DAEN+ project, this new multi-country project aims to expand support to more Member States, targeting long-standing barriers to collaborative defence procurement while accelerating progress toward the 2030 objectives.

The project aims remove institutional and procedural barriers to collaborative procurement by helping to align national legal and procedural frameworks with EU rules and good practices; strengthening the administrative capacity of national contracting authorities; and developing common procedures and tools to enhance cross-country collaboration and facilitate experience-sharing among Member States.

Proposed Support Measures

Support measures include:

Why Join?

Through this project, Member States will tackle national gaps and overcome barriers to more effective, coordinated joint defence procurement across Europe.

Participants will receive tailored technical support from the European Defence Agency as implementing partner to remove national hurdles and develop tailored policies, procedures, and tools that promote collaborative defence procurement, aligned to each country’s specific needs. By combining joint actions, capacity-building, and exchange of best practices, the project will deliver long-term benefits, including stronger administrative capacity, greater cost-efficiency, enhanced interoperability and a more competitive and resilient European defence technological and industrial sector.