EU pays Belgium €1.2bn and Czechia €309m under SAFE

Both countries can pre-finance defence investment and joint procurement; the Commission has now paid almost €13.5bn in pre-financing to eleven Member States.

Belgium has been allocated a total of €8.3bn from SAFE and Czechia €2bn; SAFE is a loan programme of up to €150bn from which Member States finance defence investment and joint purchases and later repay the loans. According to ČTK, Czechia intends to use the money mainly for Leopard 2A8 battle tanks, Tatra T-815 vehicles and making the D11 motorway usable for the military (European Commission, Daily News, 06.10.2026; second source: ČTK/České noviny, 06.10.2026). Update (7 Oct 2026): The Czech defence ministry is using the first tranche of €309m received on 6 October 2026 (about CZK 7.6bn, 15% of the roughly €2bn allocated) for spending on the project to make the D11 motorway usable by the military. The current government has redistributed the money across the three projects already chosen by Petr Fiala's cabinet: about CZK 23bn for the D11, CZK 20bn for Leopard 2A8 battle tanks and the remainder for Tatra vehicles. Nineteen EU countries take part in SAFE (ČTK/České noviny, 7 Oct 2026).