Lithuania weighs SAFE loan after EU says grant funds are unavailable

Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence will decide whether to apply for a concessional loan under the European Union’s SAFE programme after coordinating its position with the Finance Ministry, LRT reported. The decision follows the European Commission’s response to a request by the Baltic states for 500 million euros to strengthen anti-drone defences.

The Defence Ministry said it was assessing whether to seek additional funding from the unallocated portion of SAFE funds. The Finance Ministry is responsible for organising and carrying out state borrowing, it said in a reply to the ELTA news agency.

Last week, President Gitanas Nausėda said Lithuania would consider using concessional loans under SAFE to strengthen its anti-drone defences.

In response to the request from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the European Commission said there were no significant additional funding sources in the EU budget and suggested the countries use SAFE loans. The Baltic states had hoped to secure the additional funding before the end of this year.

SAFE is a temporary European Commission loan instrument for strengthening defence that will operate until the end of 2030. It has a total of 150 billion euros available to all member states. Lithuania may borrow up to 6.375 billion euros under the programme for defence needs.