Issue Balancing an EU defence-industrial preference with NATO partnership and US role-sharing

Summary

Cooperation between the EU and NATO is growing on a complementary basis, with staff working together in 74 areas and 325 cross-briefings held in committees and working groups between 2016 and 2025. Differences in membership, limits on sharing classified information, fears of duplicate investment and the EU's move to favour European products in defence procurement remain obstacles. As the EU uses common funds to expand its own defence-industrial base and procurement, interests may diverge between building up European industry and cooperating with NATO members outside the EU. The December 2025 statement by major European leaders on Ukraine, which envisaged helping Ukraine keep a peacetime force of about 800,000 and forming a European-led multinational force of volunteers, still assumed US support and a US-led ceasefire monitoring system. Higher defence budgets thus offer Europe a chance to strengthen production and joint procurement, but they come with unresolved questions of fiscal capacity, industrial fragmentation, local-content rules and the division of roles with the United States.