The European Parliament has given its approval this Tuesday for the launch of the defense innovation program "Agile," endowed with 115 million euros, with the aim of accelerating the development of military technologies and facilitating that small and medium-sized enterprises, including "startups," can transfer their advances to the European Armed Forces in shorter timeframes.
The proposal has been supported in the Eurochamber with 536 favorable votes, 101 against, and 16 abstentions, and must now receive formal approval from the Council (the governments) before its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This pilot program is expected to come into operation at the beginning of 2027.
Presented by the European Commission last March and provisionally agreed upon between the European Parliament and the Council in July, the initiative aims to respond to the lessons of the war in Ukraine, which has highlighted the need to develop, test, and deploy new military capabilities in a matter of weeks or months, and not years.
Agile funding for disruptive technologies
According to the final text approved this Tuesday in the plenary session held in Strasbourg (France), "Agile" will provide "fast and flexible" funding to companies working on emerging and disruptive technologies for defense, including the adaptation of civilian solutions for military uses, in fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), drones, quantum computing, robotics, cyber capabilities, or space systems.
To achieve this, the program will have an accelerated procedure that will allow grants to be awarded in a maximum of four months, compared to the longer timelines of current European instruments in defense matters, and will also facilitate companies' access to testing and certification infrastructures.
This pilot project plans to support between 20 and 30 initiatives and could cover up to 100% of the eligible costs, with the goal that the resulting technologies can be incorporated into the Armed Forces of the Member States within a timeframe of one to three years.
Strengthening SMEs and reducing strategic dependencies
"With 'Agile', we are accelerating the path from innovation to deployment, while reinforcing our SMEs, ensuring support for Ukraine, strengthening safeguards against strategic dependencies, improving supply security," defended in statements sent in a statement the Croatian socialist MEP Tonino Picula, rapporteur of the Security and Defense Committee of the European Parliament.
For his part, the Latvian liberal (Renew) Ivars Ijabs, rapporteur of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee, emphasized that "Europe cannot afford to be slow when the threat is fast." "'Agile' is our response: to quickly deliver funding, eliminate bureaucracy and firmly close the door to those who do not share our values," he claimed.
When presenting the proposal, the European Commission emphasized that the program will fill a gap in the European defense ecosystem, in which, according to the data presented then by the European Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, up to 80% of contracts end up concentrated in the ten largest companies in the sector.