European Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius said a call for proposals for “SAFE 2.0” will be announced “very soon”, speaking at a press conference following the meeting of the E5 group's defence ministers in Paris on Monday, LaPresse reported. “We are working to find new solutions” to boost production on Ukraine, he said.

Source: LaPresse

The new call involves launching a call for proposals relating to the €21 billion that remained unspent from the first call, Kubilius added. That is €21 billion — yaani 2,100 crore euros (21 arab euros) of EU defence-loan capacity left over from the first round, now to be offered again for new projects.

Source: LaPresse

“We hope, as the Commission President has stated, that these resources will be used for joint projects with Ukraine, including support for a major initiative in the field of ballistic defence, the so-called Freyja project,” Kubilius said, according to LaPresse.

Source: LaPresse

The direction is consistent with what Kubilius had told EU lawmakers earlier: Rapporteur reported that around €20 billion in leftover SAFE funds were to be channelled into joint projects with Ukraine, pointing to Freyja, a pan-European anti-ballistic missile project led by Ukraine. The Paris figure of €21 billion is the commissioner's latest number for the unspent remainder.

Source: Rapporteur

The announcement came on the same day the E5 defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement that Europe must assume greater responsibility for its own security, that EU initiatives can support defence readiness, and that they will maintain unwavering support for Ukraine — the political setting in which the SAFE 2.0 money is meant to be spent. No call has opened yet; “very soon” is the commissioner's timetable, not a published deadline.

Source: UK Government (GOV.UK) — E5 Defence Ministers' Statement, 26 Oct 2026