France will receive €15.1 billion from the EU for rearmament

The European Commission and France will sign a final agreement on Wednesday to provide a loan of 15.09 billion euros for rearmament and to accelerate security spending. This financial package is being provided under the new European SAFE (Security Action for Europe) lending program, which has a total budget of €150 billion. 

The new EU lending initiative is designed to support joint defense production, expand arms manufacturing, and accelerate joint military procurement among EU member states. 

The European Commission is currently in the active phase of signing final regulatory agreements with the national governments of participating countries. Poland was the first country to officially sign the relevant loan agreement under the initiative—it is the largest beneficiary and will receive over 40 billion euros to strengthen its own military.

In total, 19 European Union countries are participating in this large-scale European rearmament program. The EU Council adopted the official decision to approve long-term loans for the defense needs of the Czech Republic and France back in April. According to the approved financing plan, the Czech Republic is entitled to borrow up to 2.06 billion euros, of which 309 million euros will be provided as an immediate advance. For France, the total loan limit has been set at €15.09 billion, including an initial advance payment of approximately €2.26 billion to kickstart urgent defense investments.