New EDIP Regulation 2025/2643: What Governments and Suppliers Need to Know
On 29 December 2025 the EU has published the “European Defence Industry Programme Regulation” 2025/2643 (“EDIP Regulation”). After “EDF” (for R&D collaborations), “EDIRPA” (for common procurement), “ASAP” (for industrial development for ammunition production) and “SAFE” (for procurement of defence products aimed at addressing the current security crisis situation) the EDIP Regulation is the next capital-letter EU programme to subsidise cooperative defence investment and procurement and increase European defence readiness. The financial volume of EDIP stands at € 1.5 billion (see Art. 3 paragraphs 1-2).
In a world of shifting alliances, consequently, EDIP too does not only include EU member states but is open to the participation of “associated countries” from EEA/EFTA as well as Ukraine (it is noteworthy that on 19th December EU Member states' representatives endorsed Canada joining the 100 times(!) larger €150-billion SAFE Regulation (SAFE: member states endorse agreement on the participation of Canada - Consilium), underscoring Canada's strategic shift which was highlighted by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address on 20th January during the 2026 Davos summit (Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, PM of Canada | World Economic Forum).
The EDIP Regulation is a complex (too complex?) framework to reinforce Europe’s defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB), ensure timely availability of defence products, and support the recovery and integration of Ukraine's defence industry into the European market. It builds on and extends the logic of short-term emergency measures ASAP (Reg. 2023/1525) and EDIRPA (Reg. 2023/2418), creating a medium term programme for 2025–2027 with dedicated legal frameworks for common procurement, industrial reinforcement, strategic projects, and crisis supply measures.
EDIP establishes six pillars:
- a Programme to strengthen the EDTIB;
- a Ukraine Support Instrument;
- a framework for European Defence Projects of Common Interest (EDPCIs);
- a European Military Sales Mechanism;
- a new cooperative vehicle for Structures for European Armament Programmes (SEAPs); and
- an internal market supply crisis regime for defence and crisis relevant products.
According to Article 1 paragraph 1 the EDIP Regulation
“aims to enhance the technological leadership, innovation, readiness, long-term competitiveness, resilience, integration and preparedness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), ensuring the timely availability and supply of defence products and contributing to the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of the Ukrainian Defence Technological and Industrial Base (the ‘Ukrainian DTIB’)”.
Recipients and contractors must meet several criteria, e.g. they must generally be established, managed, and operate assets in the EU or associated countries.
How to receive financial support under the EDIP Regulation depends on the specific pillar. Most of the procedural details still need to be specified in work programmes and implementation acts by the EU Commission. In practice, a company seeking EDIP support will need to submit a proposal in response to EU Commission calls under the relevant work programme for industrial reinforcement or supporting actions; for common procurement, it participates as a bidder in the procurement run by the designated procurement agent/authority; for FAST, it engages with the implementing partner(s) offering the debt/equity products designated for defence supply chain investment.
If you have any questions regarding EDIP, SAFE or any other of the current EU or national initiatives to strengthen European defence, please get into contact with HEUKING.
