15/06/2026
A provisional agreement on the last pending file of the EU Defence Readiness Omnibus – the directive on intra-EU transfers of defence-related products and security and defence procurement – was found.
The Council Presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators reached a deal. The deal closes the legislative chapter on a package that, as we warned, risks weakening democratic oversight of arms transfers across Europe and beyond.
What was agreed
The deal completes the Omnibus package by removing administrative delays in defence procurement, accelerating permit-granting procedures, and, most critically, introducing two new mandatory General Transfer Licences (GTLs): one for transfers between certified suppliers and recipients, and one for transfers within intra-EU industrial partnerships. The agreement also raises thresholds in the defence procurement directive, introduces new flexibility in framework agreements, and facilitates broader intra-EU cooperation in the name of defence readiness by 2030.
When we, together with over 20 civil society organisations, sounded the alarm last May, our concern was clear: the push to “simplify” EU defence rules was being used to push through major policy decisions with little democratic scrutiny. We specifically warned against the expansion and mandatory imposition of GTLs – licences that authorise unlimited transfers to given recipients over several years, making it harder for national authorities to monitor where military goods and technology actually end up.
That warning has not been heeded. The agreed text not only retains mandatory GTLs, but also extends them, cementing arrangements that reduce member states’ capacity to track the final destination of military products, including sensitive technologies such as components for drones and autonomous systems.
The broader pattern
This is just the latest in a series of Omnibus bills where the language of simplification and efficiency has served to push through consequential deregulatory choices with limited civil society engagement and reduced parliamentary scrutiny. From agriculture to digital policy to defence, the pattern is the same: administrative burden reduction as a Trojan horse for weakening essential safeguards.
Weapons and military technologies, as the open letter we co-signed made plain, cannot be governed like ordinary goods. National authorities bear responsibility for compliance with the EU Common Position on arms exports, the Arms Trade Treaty, and international humanitarian law – obligations that do not become optional because an industrial partnership is certified or a transfer is classified as intra-EU.
What comes next
The provisional agreement must still be formally endorsed by the Council and Parliament before entering into force. That process offers one last, narrow opportunity for scrutiny. We call on MEPs and member state governments to ensure the final legal text is subject to rigorous review, and that implementation is accompanied by robust monitoring of where the new GTL framework leads in practice.