[POLITICO] EU & UK Reach Cooperation Agreement on SAFE Governance Framework

After days of negotiations in the European Council, the heads of state or government have agreed to base future cooperation on the existing Security Action for Europe governance framework (SAFE), rather than adopting an entirely new one.

Over the course of the summit, discussions were rocky. Whilst European Council president António Costa was pressing on discussing a governance framework, the majority of the politicians much rather preferred to discuss “European” Security and Common Defense.

The UK tells POLITICO: “they literally told me that they do not care [about my opinion.]” Spain declares: “UK’s votes do not count anyways!”

SAFE is a temporary EU defence fund offering up to 150 billion euros in loans to member states. Romania tells POLITICO that the entry into the SAFE framework should remain voluntary, but that as military spending rises globally, part of that spending should be mandatorily contributed to the SAFE fund.

The initially reluctant UK agrees to join the new SAFE framework, in order to promote the growth of the UK’s own military funds, despite having decided not to back in 2025.