Talks on full accession of third countries to the European defence enhancement programme SAFE will not proceed at this stage, sources in the European Commission familiar with the matter have said.
According to Report's Brussels bureau, a preliminary assessment of applications showed that Türkiye has been included in the national plans of several EU member states.
"This is actually a positive outcome. As you may recall, talks with the UK were unsuccessful because of the financial commitments it would have had to assume if it joined independently. But when a country participates in the programme jointly with an EU member state, such obligations do not apply," one source said.
Another key factor is that even if negotiations had advanced, Türkiye could have been blocked during voting in the EU Council, where unanimity is required. Such a scenario was seen as highly likely due to Greece's position.
"Applications from national governments have already exceeded the €150 billion in financing allocated under the instrument. The deadline for submissions from both EU countries and third states has already passed," the source added.
At a briefing in Brussels, EU spokesperson Thomas Regnier said that in addition to South Korea and Türkiye, Japan has also submitted a request to take part in the programme.
"Today I can reconfirm, in addition to Canada - with which we have already successfully concluded a bilateral agreement to join SAFE - that Türkiye and South Korea have expressed interest in starting bilateral talks on full accession to SAFE. The same applies to Japan," he said, adding that the next step would be to assess all three requests.
Speaking to Report, Regnier noted that under SAFE regulations, non-EU states may participate jointly with EU member states for up to 35% of procurement costs: "This applies not to the entire programme but to each individual joint project."
Responding to journalists, he also said that the total portfolio of proposals from 19 EU member states seeking loans has significantly exceeded €150 billion.
According to Regnier, the requests surpassed the instrument"s planned budget by around 25%, or just under €40 billion.