EU High Representative on Foreign and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has called on EU member states to give the European Defence Agency (EDA) more power and resources so it can move from supporting defence co-operation to leading it, particularly on innovation.
Speaking at the EDA’s 2026 Annual Conference in Brussels, Kallas said the agency needed “the necessary means” from member states if it was to “lead, not just facilitate”, the EDA informed in a statement on Wednesday.
She also urged governments to make the EDA “a true EU hub of defence innovation”, including support for “next generation and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence.”
The EDA is owned and funded by the EU’s 27 member states.
EDA chief executive André Denk said the agency would put forward proposals “in the coming days” to strengthen its operations, describing the plan as “a new, re-engineered agency — the new EDA.”
He said the areas for expansion would include preparing joint procurement, developing new military capabilities together and taking innovation “from the lab to testing to field use.”
Calls for stronger EU defence
Andrius Kubilius, the EU commissioner for defence and space, backed a stronger EU defence and said: “Europe has the potential to become a defence giant,” according to a separate published speech linked by the EDA.
Support for strengthening the EDA was also voiced at the conference by Sweden’s defence minister Pål Jonson and Germany’s state secretary for defence Jens Plötner.
Plötner told the event that “hard core defence will remain intergovernmental”, while Jonson and Plötner both said missile defence should be a priority for EU defence.
Cyprus’s defence minister Vasilis Palmas said his government, which holds the rotating EU presidency of the Council, would make a “particular effort” to strengthen the EDA over the next six months.
