President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday hailed the Council of the European Union’s decision to approve the disbursement of almost €1.2 billion worth of funding for Cyprus’, to be spent on defence.

“We have before us an important financial tool. I am glad that the Republic of Cyprus is among the first member states, and this shows the important work we have done internally,” he said upon his arrival at the day’s informal European leaders’ retreat at the Alden Biesen castle in eastern Belgium.

He added that the Council of the EU’s approval of the funding is “an indication of the correct work which was carried out in Cyprus”, before highlighting the fact that Cyprus is “among the first member states where the relevant amount was approved”.

The funding was secured through the EU’s Security Action for Europe (Safe) programme, with Wednesday night’s decision seeing the Council of the EU effectively ratify the European Commission’s earlier positive assessment of the investment plan the Cypriot government had submitted at the end of last year.

According to the Council of the EU, this funding will enable Cyprus to “acquire modern defence equipment” and “boost [its] defence readiness”.

Following Wednesday’s decision, the European Commission will disburse to Cyprus just shy of €180 million as a “pre-financing payment” before later concluding a loan agreement for the maximum, which is a little less than €1.2bn.

Cyprus was one of eight EU member states to have their Safe programme funding approved on Wednesday night, with Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, and Spain also receiving the Council of the EU’s stamp of approval.

With Cyprus currently holding the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency, the foreign affairs council (Fac), which met in its “defence configuration” to approve the disbursements, was chaired by Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas.

He said after the session that the approvals “show that the EU is now only talking about defence – we are delivering”.

“Through Safe, we are strengthening our security where it matters the most,” he said.

The Fac will meet again in its “defence configuration” next Tuesday to approve the disbursement of funding to eight more member states: Estonia, Greece, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia.

In total, more than €150bn of funding has been allocated to the programme, with Palmas having previously said that the funds allocated to Cyprus would see the National Guard acquire military hardware to “cover [its] priorities” until 2030.

He added that the Safe programme came about about “at a time when the European Union’s needs to cover shortcomings are significant”, and at a time “when the mobilisation of equipment programmes and joint procurement programmes is becoming urgent”.

“The €150bn which will be invested by member states in the joint procurement of high-tech weapons systems is expected to be the trigger for a new promising era for European defence, with the ultimate goal of autonomy, technological dominance, and resilience,” he said.

Also on Wednesday night, the Fac approved a decision authorising the EU to sign a bilateral agreement with Canada to allow Canadian companies to participate in the Safe programme and to allow Safe funding to be used to procure Canadian products.

As such, Canada will become the first country outside the EU’s 27 member states, the four European Free Trade Association states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – and Ukraine to participate in the Safe programme.

That agreement will be formally concluded if the European Parliament votes in its favour.