Auditors call for long-term strategy for EU defence R&D fund

Precursor to €8 billion European Defence Fund suffered delays that “limited lessons learnt”, report concludes

The lack of a long-term strategy for the EU’s €8 billion defence research fund has been questioned by the bloc’s auditors.

In a report published on 26 April, the European Court of Auditors criticised multiple aspects of EU defence research spending since 2017, including delays to projects and a lack of planning for the utilisation of research results.