What is Safe and why could it help Italy?

It divides the majority, but also the opposition: it is called Security Action for Europe, although everyone calls it Safe. It is a scheme that the European Union has put in place to provide long-term loans of up to 150 billion euros to help Member States rapidly and significantly increase investment in the defence sector through joint procurement. Beneficiary states will have to repay the loan, which will, however, carry a preferential interest rate, have a 45-year maturity and a ten-year ‘grace period’. The regulation establishing it came into force in May 2025 and forms the first pillar of the European Commission’s ‘ReArm Europe’ plan (later renamed ‘Readiness Europe’). 

Safe provides funding for a range of areas. These range from missiles and ammunition to small drones and related anti-drone systems, from air defence to cyber security, right through to the protection of critical infrastructure and military mobility. Investments also cover strategic areas such as, amongst others, strategic air transport, in-flight refuelling and space services, as well as artificial intelligence and electronic warfare.  The allocated funds will be disbursed to the participating states upon request and on the basis of national plans. Overall, between 11 February and 10 April 2026, the Council approved defence funding under SAFE for 18 EU member states. Among these is Italy, which has "reserved" (in the words of Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani) €14.9 billion just before the deadline set for midnight on 30 July 2025. 

As we explain here, from a financial point of view, opting out of Safe appears difficult to justify. The European Commission has a better credit rating than Italy. Put simply: Brussels borrows at lower rates than those Rome would have to pay by issuing BTPs. Taking out loans totalling nearly 15 billion would therefore save the public budget around 120 million euros in interest each year. By the end of the repayment period, this would amount to several billion. Consequently, thanks to their more favourable interest rates, the loans would help reduce the burden of military expenditure. 

The loans also provide for a ten-year grace period, during which the principal does not have to be repaid. European funding, moreover, is linked to joint programmes involving several countries: SAFE loans are, in fact, partly conditional on being spent on multinational programmes, in order to reduce the fragmentation and waste currently prevalent in the European defence industry. In short: spending together means spending more effectively and potentially also spending less in the future. 

“By the end of the year we will decide how many to use. As I have always said, and as my colleagues Giorgetti and Crosetto have also said, we will probably use fewer,” explained Forza Italia leader Tajani. This reassurance was aimed at those within the ruling coalition who are more sceptical about the possibility of resorting to the Safe mechanism. Despite having secured the EU’s green light for the defence plan as early as last January, Giorgia Meloni’s government has not yet signed the implementing agreement for the disbursement of the first tranche of loans. The final – and formal – approval for signing the implementing agreements rests with the Ministry of the Economy. Crosetto has repeatedly urged the Ministry to decide swiftly on the allocations. Yet, as we report here, for both Prime Minister Meloni and the Minister for the Economy and Finance, increasing military spending is not only not a priority, but a damaging issue in an election campaign that has already begun. And one in which, at least on the issue of military spending, the League and National Future share the same level of scepticism. 

Things are not much better in the opposition, where practically only the PD is in favour of SAFE. “It should be used, as many European countries already do. And it is right that it should be used primarily for European projects, for the standardisation of weapons systems, the construction of a satellite system and harmonised and standardised infrastructure systems,” explained PD MP Piero Fassino to Il Foglio. "It strikes me as absurd to say no, only to then perhaps have to draw on the capital markets for national investments at much higher rates." He was echoed by Democratic Party Senator Alessandro Alfieri: "We maintain that we must make the necessary investments by promoting economies of scale and interoperability, and this is achieved by bringing together European defence industries and getting European governments to work together, rather than spending solely at national level.” According to the senator, “European defence cannot be achieved if we continue to increase national funding without coordinating it and without a path towards integration.” AVS takes the opposite view. “What we are seeing is a sort of rearmament by member states,” AVS leader Angelo Bonelli told Il Foglio. “Rearmament on a country-by-country basis leads to a clear imbalance. That is why we say no to SAFE.” Giuseppe Conte shares this view: “Despite the political acrobatics and the embarrassment just a few months before the elections, the direction is clear and is that of the rearmament agreement signed by Meloni in Brussels and at NATO in recent years – wrote the M5S president in *X* – which jeopardises our future without anyone having gone to Brussels to negotiate, as we did in 2020 to secure massive resources to tackle the energy crisis, the industrial crisis and the crisis of purchasing power.”