The European Commission on Thursday approved the disbursement of over €1 billion to Cyprus as part of its Security Action for Europe (Safe) programme.
In total, Cyprus will receive exactly €1,181,503,924, while 18 other European Union member states are also in line to receive funding as part of the €150bn allocated by the commission to the programme earlier this year.
Poland will receive the highest share, amounting to €43.7bn, while Romania and France will each receive just over €16bn. Greece is set to receive slightly less than Cyprus, with an allocation of just under €788m.
The Safe programme foresees EU member states and allies joining forces to carry out “common procurements” of military hardware, with the aim that each procurement will involve at least two participating countries.
All EU member states and Ukraine qualify for the Safe programme, along with the four European Economic Area states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – and six other countries that have signed common defence agreements with the EU, namely Albania, Japan, Moldova, North Macedonia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, which concluded its agreement in May.
The Cypriot government had given the EU formal notice of its intention to participate in the Safe programme’s common procurement instrument while officials from the EU’s directorate-general for the defence industry and space (DG-Defis) visited the island in July.
The defence ministry’s procurement director Panayiotis Hadjipavlis had said in July that the government was in contact “with very friendly member states”, including Greece, over the matter, “so that we can find common programmes and thus proceed with joint procurement”.
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