Brussels, 13 November 2025
Member of the European Parliament and member of the committee on security and defence (SEDE) Željana Zovko will go to London to chair the EPP group security and defence forum.
The EPP group security and defence forum aims at highlighting the crucial need for continued and deepened cooperation between the EU and the UK in the area of security and defence, in a context of rising security challenges and geopolitical uncertainties.
Through exchanges of view between Members of the EPP group and experts, politicians and practitioners, the forum will be an opportunity to highlight the possible areas of enhanced cooperation between the EU and the UK, building on their shared challenges and on the commitment made during the EU-UK Summit on 19 May 2025 to increase cooperation, notably illustrated by the signing of a Security and Defence Partnership.
The Security and Defence Partnership paves the way for the UK participation in common procurement under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument. With the SAFE program, the Commission will raise up to €150 billion on the capital markets. These funds will be disbursed to interested EU Member States. SAFE will also allow countries having signed a Security and Defence Partnerships with the EU to join common procurements and contribute to aggregated demand.
However, even if the Security and Defence Partnership was concluded, the EU and the UK are currently negotiating a specific agreement to allow UK defence companies’ participation in the procurements.
Let us remind that, as a member of the European Parliament committee on foreign affairs (AFET), Zovko is rapporteur on the UK. As such, she is actively advocating for deepening EU-UK cooperation and to build on the momentum created by the signing of the EU-UK Security and Defence Partnership. Moreover, Zovko has been consistently emphasizing the need for the EU and the UK to further deepen their cooperation in key regions, including the Middle East, the Sahel, and the Western Balkans, as well as in ensuring maritime security in the Red Sea.