Lithuania to coordinate SAFE loan decision with Finance Ministry

Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence will decide whether to apply for a European Union SAFE loan after coordinating its position with the Finance Ministry, LRT reported. The assessment follows the European Commission’s refusal to provide the Baltic states with the €500 million they requested to strengthen defences against drones.

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 response to the news agency ELTA.

President Gitanas Nausėda said last week that Lithuania would consider using preferential loans under the EU SAFE programme to strengthen its anti-drone defences.

In response to a joint request from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for €500 million, the Commission said there were no large additional sources of funding in the EU budget and suggested the countries use SAFE loans. The Baltic states had hoped to secure additional funding before the end of this year.

SAFE is a temporary European Commission lending instrument to strengthen defence, running until the end of 2030. It has a total budget of €150 billion for all member states. Lithuania can borrow up to €6.375 billion under the programme to finance defence needs.