The Council of the EU on Monday gave the green light to the first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, covering drones and counter-drone systems, maritime defence, space, air and missile defence and the protection of the EU’s eastern flank, with Cyprus participating in four of the five projects.

“Today we turn ambition into action,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The projects are aimed at strengthening Europe’s defence readiness and industrial capacity by allowing member states to jointly develop major capabilities that would be too large or complex for individual countries to pursue alone.

Cyprus is participating in the Drone and Counter-Drone European Resolve, Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence, EU Federated Integrated Air and Missile Defence and Eastern Flank Watch projects. Cyprus is not participating in the ‘Space’ project.

The first concerns the development and large-scale deployment of drones and counter-drone technologies to address critical capability gaps, while the maritime project aims to create an integrated and interoperable system to detect, deter and respond to threats at sea and on the seabed, including threats to critical underwater infrastructure.

The missile defence project will focus on integrated air and missile defence, combining early-warning capabilities with coordinated command-and-control systems.

The Eastern Flank Watch project is intended to strengthen security along the EU’s eastern borders across land, air, sea and cyberspace. Cyprus is among the participants despite being geographically removed from the Union’s eastern land border. The Commission has said the project is intended to benefit all member states and could expand its geographical area of interest.

Irish Defence Minister Helen McEntee said the projects marked “decisive steps” towards strengthening Europe’s security.

“Working closely with our partners Norway and Ukraine, we are taking decisive steps together to protect our space, our skies, our seas, our undersea cables and the citizens who depend on them,” she said.

The five projects are now eligible for support through EDIP for their initial development, with the Commission having earmarked €325 million for the initiatives.

This comes at a time when Cyprus has been allocated almost €1.2 billion through Safe and has already received €177.2 million in pre-financing is in addition Cyprus is buying Israeli systems, including the Barak MX air defence system whilst Greece is moving ahead with the €3.035 billion Achilles Shield, much of it based on Israeli technology.