Founding members wanted. In her State of the European Union speech in September 2025, Ursula von der Leyen announced the creation of a “drone alliance with Ukraine.” Although the President of the European Commission did not elaborate at the time on exactly what this entailed or what form the alliance would take, she did pledge 6 billion euros in EU funding to finance the project.
Since then, things have been fairly quiet regarding the initiative. But now the project is gaining momentum again. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space has issued a call for interested companies to participate as founding members in an “EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance.”
The application deadline is May 25, 2026. Afterward, the selected founding members are to elect a steering committee to guide the initiative’s future activities. The European Commission’s stated goal is to form an industry-led alliance. On the one hand, this alliance is intended to bring together the practical experience and short innovation cycles of Ukrainian companies with the production and manufacturing capacities of small, medium-sized, and large European companies. On the other hand, it aims to create an interface with the actual users of modern drone technologies in order to incorporate requirements and insights from the user’s perspective into the “EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance.”
More information on this topic and opportunities for companies to participate can be found here