For years, the European Defence Agency was Europe's sleeping beauty of armaments cooperation — created to coordinate joint defense projects, but rarely given the political backing to fulfill its mission.
Now, as Europe embarks on its most ambitious rearmament drive in decades, that may be changing.
More than 20 years after its creation, the EDA is emerging as a key institution in efforts to close critical capability gaps, coordinate procurement and strengthen the continent's industrial base.
Since the launch of the EU Defence Readiness 2030 roadmap, the agency has overhauled its internal processes to address nine priority capability shortfalls, including drones, artillery systems, missiles and ammunition. It has also helped coordinate the procurement of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine.
Yet historically, engagement has been limping. "Member states have only ever engaged the Agency for defense projects in a rather superficial manner, although its role in EU defense processes has actually grown," said Daniel Fiott, a researcher at the Brussels-based Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy.
EU defense ministers have approved the first phase of a three-stage reform plan to strengthen the agency's innovation, capability development and acquisition functions through 2028. The EDA's staff is set to swell from 235 to 285 by the end of 2026.
Fiott welcomed the reforms but argued the agency's constraints have never been purely operational — they are political. "If the member states are truly serious about empowering the agency, then the answer is simple: launch meaningful joint defense projects together with EDA as the manager," he said.
The EDA's untapped potential
What sets the EDA apart is that, while it's headed by EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas, its day-to-day work is handled by national defense ministries and member-state officials.
That structure makes the agency a natural hub for a wider procurement network — coordinating joint efforts while leaving purchasing decisions in the hands of member states or lead-nation coalitions, rather than a centralized European body.
"Only then could we see an incremental path toward the EDA becoming the center of European procurement," said Claude-France Arnould, the agency's chief executive from 2011 to 2015 and now senior fellow at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics.
The goal, according to an EDA official, is greater clarity and coordination across the EU's fragmented defense architecture — not to supplant national procurement agencies, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation or the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, which will continue to handle the most complex acquisition programs.
One early step will be a collaborative defense procurement center focused on urgently needed off-the-shelf equipment, including loitering munitions and small drones.
For now, the agency's ambition remains constrained by its size. Germany's BAAINBw employ around 13,000 staff. By comparison, at the end of 2025 the EDA's procurement unit had only about 15 employees.
But it compensates with flexibility. The EDA can work with partner countries outside the EU, such as the United Kingdom and Norway, and can facilitate cooperation among as few as two or three member states
"The EDA can work with only those member states willing to do something together," Arnould said. "The Commission cannot do that because it must be an equal partner to all 27 member states."
Reviving the EDA, or containing the Commission?
The agency already plays a prominent role in research and development through HEDI, the EU's defense innovation hub. But to better adapt to the new systems and technologies of modern warfare, it's now planning an even larger defense innovation center.
"The core objective is to help member states identify solutions to capability gaps, test them under realistic operational conditions and accelerate their operational deployment," the same EDA official said.
Central to those efforts will be the Programme for Rapid Innovation and Military Experimentation and a series of operational experimentation campaigns. In October, the agency will run a campaign in Portugal focused on drones and loitering munitions, followed by a second exercise in Switzerland in November.
“Given the war in Ukraine, we need to close the gap between what military officers need on the ground and Europe’s innovators,” said Fiott. He added that the EU would do well to emulate the approach of Ukraine, as they have successfully bridged that gap.
The EDA is already moving in that direction. Together with the European Commission, it's developing the €100 million BraveTech program, which translates battlefield challenges identified in Ukraine into capability requirements for the European industry — from startups and small and SMEs to major defense companies — in search of operational solutions.
With the new procurement center, the expanded innovation hub and the operational experimentation campaigns, the first phase of the reform plan is already underway. However, the second and third phases still require approval from defense ministers.
The question now is whether the renewed support for the EDA reflects a genuine commitment to strengthening the agency, or simply an effort by member states to counterbalance the Commission's growing role in a policy area that governments still regard as a core national prerogative.
"What is required is not rivalry but cooperation,” Fiott said. "And the agency should not be used as a political tool to keep in check the Commission at the behest of the member states."
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