Commission adopts package of proposals in EU Defence Readiness Omnibus

What’s New

On 17 June 2025, the Commission adopted its proposal for a Defence Readiness Omnibus (the DRO), a package of legislative and non-legislative measures designed to speed up defence investments and production across the EU by removing bottlenecks in public procurement, permitting, reporting obligations, and cross-border cooperation.

These proposals build upon the Commission’s White Paper for European Defence Readiness 2030, which identifies defence-related investment needs to address capability gaps and build a strong defence industrial base.

The DRO includes measures relevant to defence and non-defence specific legislation, and would notably:

• Introduce a fast-track permitting regime for defence projects

• Reduce the administrative burden in the European Defence Fund for applicants and participants

• Ease procurement by incentivising joint purchases among Member States and increasing contract thresholds

• Clarify the application of existing EU-wide rules under, for example, competition and environmental legislation to the defence sector

• Ensure chemicals regulations accommodate defence needs

• Improve access to finance for the defence sector by streamlining InvestEU eligibility criteria and providing guidance on the application of the EU sustainable finance framework to the defence sector

The Commission also clarifies that only weapons banned under the relevant international arms treaties and conventions to which the majority of Member States are parties should be excluded from certain sustainable investment indices in the benchmark regulation.

Next Steps

The Commission’s proposals have been submitted to the European Parliament and the Council and will go through the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.