EU Maritime Defence: Spending Surge, Industrial Concentration, and Funding Gaps

EU defence budgets climbed to €418 billion in 2025—a 20 percent rise from the previous year—and are projected to reach €454 billion in 2026, representing about 2.4 percent of the bloc’s combined GDP. Within this growth, maritime defence is one of the fastest-expanding sectors. Production of naval vessels and related equipment has totaled €117.8 billion since 2016, with €13.7 billion generated in 2025 alone.

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Four nations dominate the EU’s maritime-defence industrial base. France produced 37 percent of the bloc’s naval vehicles in 2025, while Germany and Italy each contributed 19 percent and Spain 8 percent; together they accounted for 87 percent of total output and 82 percent of its value. The same four states supplied 93 percent of EU naval exports, with submarines comprising 27 percent of maritime-defence output.

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Christophe Tytgat, Secretary General of the shipyards and maritime equipment association SEA Europe, stresses that this concentration is “real and structural,” reflecting decades of naval-industrial history. However, senior advisor Chris Kremidas-Courtney of the European Policy Centre argues that focusing solely on industrial output obscures the capabilities of frontline states such as Greece and Sweden, which maintain strong conventional submarine fleets and region-specific naval forces.

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The surge in spending is driven largely by Russia’s war in Ukraine and associated maritime threats, including a “shadow fleet” of sanctioned tankers and a series of undersea cable cuts in the Baltic Sea in late 2024. In response, the EU adopted a Cable Security Action Plan in 2025 and reinforced NATO’s “Baltic Sentry” patrols.

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Funding measures announced in 2026 include a €347 million Commission subsea-infrastructure package, a €92 million ocean-observation initiative, and a €150 billion SAFE loan facility under the “Readiness 2030” roadmap. The European Defence Fund has allocated 68.4 percent of its resources to France, Germany, Italy and Spain, while PESCO’s joint shipbuilding projects continue under the Italian-led European Patrol Corvette programme.

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Tytgat warns that the current Maritime Security Strategy, revised in 2023 to address state-based threats, lacks sufficient financing and governance to translate its tools into concrete action. He describes the €347 million and €92 million programmes as “first steps” but “far from enough” for the EU to meet daily maritime challenges.

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In March 2026 the EU launched an Industrial Maritime Strategy, earmarking €325 million for naval and under-sea projects and integrating shipbuilding into a bloc-wide industrial framework. The effectiveness of burden-sharing will be tested when the European Commission publishes its progress report on the strategy in October 2026.

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