From prototypes to capabilities – enabling new defence actors to scale up

–having regard to its resolution of 25 November 2025 on the institutional aspects of the Report on the future of European Competitiveness (Draghi Report)7,

–having regard to the report by Mario Draghi of 9 September 2024 entitled ‘The future of European competitiveness’ and, in particular, Chapter 4 thereof on increasing security and reducing dependencies,

–having regard to the report by Enrico Letta of 17 April 2024 entitled ‘Much more than a Market – Speed, Security, Solidarity: Empowering the Single Market to deliver a sustainable future and prosperity for all EU Citizens’,

–having regard to the Commission proposal of 25 March 2026 for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing the Programme for agile and rapid defence innovation (AGILE) of 25 March 2026 (COM(2026)0135),

–having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Security and Defence (A10-0000/2026),

A.whereas the EU’s defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB) is increasingly dependent on innovative start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and companies developing dual-use and defence technologies;

B.whereas Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East have demonstrated the decisive role of disruptive technologies in modern combat;

C.whereas the fragmentation of national certification, testing and security accreditation regimes, combined with the absence of permanent mutual recognition, pose systemic difficulties for innovative companies;

D.whereas the lack of progress towards an EU single market for defence has resulted in a situation in which defence SMEs and start-ups struggle to find customers;

The scale-up gap

1.Underlines that EU-funded research, development and demonstration programmes can produce successful, innovative and disruptive defence products; recalls that such efforts must be followed by timely procurement by the Member States’ armed forces;

2.Notes that in the absence of follow-on contracts, innovative companies may fail or relocate to non-EU countries, reversing the progress made so far; calls on the Member States to develop national innovation procurement mechanisms that provide first contracts to domestic innovators and to set a target of at least 10 % of defence procurement expenditure for emerging and disruptive technologies;

3.Considers that Member States’ application of additional national requirements on top of existing EU regulations creates unnecessary bottlenecks in the procurement of innovative defence solutions;

4.Notes that defence start-ups and new market entrants frequently lack the manufacturing infrastructure needed to move from validated prototypes to serial production; welcomes, therefore, NATO’s initiative to connect defence innovators with civilian companies that have spare production facilities;

Contracts, procurement and risk

5.Highlights the structural disconnect between EU-funded research and development (R&D) and national procurement decisions; calls on the Member States to serve as first customers for domestic defence SMEs and new defence actors and to foster the uptake of innovative solutions using contracts that allow for flexibility during prototyping and scale-up stages;

6.Calls on the Member States to establish innovation procurement budgets that are explicitly not tied to guaranteed outcomes, accepting that a proportion of spending on emerging technologies will not result in fielded products; calls, in this context, on the Member States to pool resources for the procurement of innovative defence solutions, especially for products that have successfully completed EU-funded programmes;

7.Calls on the Commission to undertake an early assessment of the proposed regulation for a programme for agile and rapid defence innovation (AGILE) and to scale up this contract-based model substantially under the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF);

8.Calls on the Member States to expand the use of dedicated innovation units within their armed forces and calls further on the European Defence Agency (EDA) to provide training and capacity-building for national ministry of defence staff;

9.Welcomes the forthcoming revision of the defence8 and general9 procurement directives; calls on the Commission to ensure that these revisions raise thresholds for innovation procurement and offer flexible procedures across all stages of defence and dual-use innovation cycles;

Access to finance

10.Notes that, while early-stage EU defence funding is improving, a critical gap remains at the growth stage; stresses that such investment is dependent on the expectation of contracts, and that without procurement reform this capital gap cannot be closed by financial instruments alone;

11.Welcomes the opening of direct EU equity investments to defence start-ups, as well as the Scaleup Europe Fund and the Defence Equity Facility 2.0; calls on the Commission to ensure that these instruments also cover defence-first companies;

12.Is concerned that European defence companies are forced to sell to non-EU investors or relocate; calls on the Member States to reframe defence investment as contributing to EU common priorities within institutional investment mandates;

13.Calls on the Commission to design the defence component of the ECF as a coherent pipeline linking defence research to industrial deployment, and to ensure that national initiatives, EU-funded programmes and NATO innovation programmes are complementary;

14.Welcomes the quadrupling of the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) defence financing; calls on the EIB Group to expand its intermediated lending partnerships and working capital instruments across all Member States, particularly those on the eastern flank;

Certification and testing

15.Deplores the absence of permanent mutual recognition of defence product certifications across the EU; calls on the Commission and the EDA to evaluate and develop legally binding measures for a test-once principle in order to avoid duplicative national testing procedures;

16.Welcomes NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan and its proposed use of Innovation Badges to build trust in tested products; calls for the EU to recognise these badges within its own instruments and on willing Member States to conclude agreements on the mutual recognition of defence testing and certification results;

17.Calls on large defence companies receiving EU funding to open their testing facilities to SMEs and start-ups and on the Commission and the EDA to scale up operational experimentation campaigns;

18.Stresses that effective defence testing and evaluation require not only physical facilities but also a functioning ecosystem, and that priority should be given to the creation of instruments and infrastructure through which new defence actors can receive iterative feedback from national armed forces;

19.Notes the nine capability coalitions established under the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030; calls on the Commission and the EDA to ensure that each coalition includes a dedicated testing and demonstration component open to start-ups and SMEs;

20.Calls on the Commission to allocate dedicated funding under the next multiannual financial framework for defence testing and evaluation infrastructure, including equipment, methodologies and the expansion of facilities;

Intellectual property

21.Underlines the importance of intellectual property protection for new defence actors; calls on the Commission to ensure that intellectual property rights regimes in EU defence programmes protect small innovators from appropriation by consortium partners;

22.Calls on the Commission to expand mechanisms to incentivise prime contractors to work with start-ups, including through mandatory subcontracting thresholds for innovative SMEs in EU-funded defence consortia;

Ukraine

23.Welcomes successful examples of structured defence innovation cooperation with Ukraine, the inclusion of Ukraine in the SAFE and EDIP instruments and the creation of the BraveTechEU partnership;

24.Underlines that Ukraine’s defence innovation ecosystem operates at an unmatched speed, with iterative cycles of development, battlefield testing and adaptation often measured in weeks; stresses that facilitating European companies’ access to this operational learning, including through joint development and co-production, would serve the EU’s own defence readiness;

25.Calls on the Commission to ensure that all future EU defence instruments continue to expand access for Ukrainian companies and facilitate technology exchange with EU companies in order to build long-term partnerships;

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26.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.