Special Report: EU Cohesion Policy and Defence
7 pages · PDF · 22 September 2025 · Licensed single-user copy, watermarked to the buyer
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About this report
This special edition of Defence Finance Monitor examines the unprecedented convergence between EU cohesion policy and defence. For decades, cohesion funds such as the ERDF, the Cohesion Fund and the ESF+ were used exclusively to promote regional development, reduce disparities and strengthen social inclusion.
The 2025 mid-term review of the EU’s financial framework has fundamentally altered this paradigm, explicitly opening cohesion instruments to defence-related objectives. Industrial capacities, dual-use infrastructure, military mobility, civil preparedness, SME participation and skills development have all been integrated into the scope of cohesion funding.
Key questions this report answers
- How does the 2025 mid-term review of the EU financial framework open cohesion instruments (ERDF, Cohesion Fund, ESF+) to defence-related objectives?
- Which defence objectives - industrial capacities, dual-use infrastructure, military mobility, civil preparedness, SME participation and skills - now fall within cohesion funding scope?
- How does this convergence alter the historic regional-development and social-inclusion purpose of cohesion funds?
- What are the governance and implementation implications of channelling cohesion policy toward defence?
Who it's for
Bid, compliance and advisory teams working with EU defence funding and procurement instruments, and the counsel who support them.
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Methodology, format & delivery
DFM reports are built from primary and official sources — TED procurement notices, CORDIS and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIB operations, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio, SIPRI data, official budget documents and company disclosures — read together with the underlying legal texts. Sources are cited in the document; it reflects them as of its publication date (22 September 2025). You receive a 7-page PDF, watermarked to you on every page, delivered on the confirmation page and by e-mail immediately after checkout (personal link valid 72 hours, up to 5 downloads). Guest checkout, single-user licence — Terms of Sale.
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