Poland Defense a high growth market in Europe's SAFE Defense fund

The EU’s SAFE (Security Action for Europe) fund enables up to 150 billion euro in low‑interest loans for defense investments across member states, with financing raised centrally by the European Commission and guaranteed by the EU budget. Converted at roughly 1.1 USD per euro, this represents about 165 billion USD of financing capacity. Poland, treated as a front‑line state, is expected to secure between 20 and 50 billion euro (approximately 22–55 billion USD), equal to around 90–230 billion PLN, with government expectations centered on about 120–130 billion PLN.​

SAFE aims to expand Europe’s defense‑industrial capacity by co‑funding armaments projects and industrial upgrades, with at least 65% of each project’s value to come from entities based in the EU, EEA or Ukraine. For Poland, this comes alongside plans to prepare a national defense‑industry development strategy by the end of 2025, coordinated by an inter‑ministerial team covering defense, development, regional funds and state‑assets portfolios. The intent is to use SAFE‑backed financing to scale domestic production in segments such as drones, precision munitions and other advanced systems, building on existing capabilities already present in the Polish market.​

The loans are structured as low‑interest, long‑tenor instruments, significantly more attractive than typical sovereign or commercial borrowing, and they can support both new projects and, in the initial phase, already‑signed contracts. This combination of favorable financing conditions, sizeable national allocation and policy focus on industrial development creates a multi‑year pipeline of defense‑related investment in Poland, with capital needs in the tens of billions of dollars and a clear preference for projects that embed production, engineering and technology activities within the European economic area.

For more information, please contact Commercial Service Poland at office.warsaw@trade.gov.