SAFE: Council concludes agreement with Canada
Today, the Council adopted a decision formally concluding the agreement between the EU and Canada on the participation of Canadian companies and products originating from Canada in procurement under the ‘Security action for Europe’ SAFE . Canada is the first non-European country to participate in the SAFE instrument.
“Canada is one of the European Union’s closest allies. Having Canada joining SAFE highlights the deep trust between us and sets a strong precedent for how the EU can collaborate with key strategic partners to safeguard our collective future.”
Vasilis Palmas, Minister of Defence of Cyprus
The agreement -signed on 14 February 2026- reflects the shared ambition of the EU and Canada to deepen their security and defence ties and to further strengthen joint defence cooperation, as set out in the Security and Defence Partnership signed at the Canada-EU Summit on 23 June 2025.
SAFE is an EU financial instrument supporting member states that wish to invest in defence industrial production through common procurement, focusing on priority capabilities. It finances urgent and large-scale investments in the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB), with the aim of boosting production capacity, ensuring the timely availability of defence equipment, and addressing existing capability gaps.
Under SAFE, Ukraine and EFTA/EEA countries are able to participate in common procurement. Acceding countries, candidate countries, potential candidates and countries which have signed Security and Defence Partnerships with the EU may also take part in common procurement and contribute to aggregated demand.
Background
The SAFE regulation was adopted in May 2025, as part of ‘Readiness 2030’, an ambitious defence package designed to provide EU member states with financial levers to drive a surge in defence investments.