08 January 2026

‘Soft Power’ Meets ‘Hard Security’: Leveraging Europe’s Regulatory Strength for Energy Transformation in Defence

Comment published by Armament Industry Research Group, IRIS - Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques, 5 January 2026.

Europe’s defence-industrial expansion coincides with the urgent need to accelerate the energy transition and reduce dependencies on imported fossil fuels and critical raw materials. This paper examines how the EU can leverage its regulatory power to align defence spending with wider sustainable transformation objectives. It argues that energy security provides a pragmatic entry point for integrating clean innovation into defence policy, given operational vulnerabilities of conventional fuel systems and rapidly evolving warfare realities. New defence frameworks such as the European Defence Industrial Strategy and Readiness 2030 still pay limited attention to the strategic role of energy transition for military readiness and Europe’s broader resilience. The paper outlines opportunities to systematically link defence procurement with clean industrial policy and to foster security-centric energy and material innovation through existing EU legislative and funding instruments. It concludes that achieving regulatory coherence between defence-industrial build-up and energy transition can help to strengthen Europe’s technological leadership and strategic autonomy in a volatile geopolitical environment.

"Instead of asking whether a project is 'green enough', policymakers could apply a 'security premium', prioritising clean technologies that measurably enhance both civilian energy security and military readiness." 

Main takeaways

Strengthening Europe’s resilience requires a strategic understanding of how the continent’s defence-industrial build-up is powered, and to what extent a systematic alignment with energy transition efforts is mission-critical – to lower costs of operations, boost autonomy in the field and lessen critical infrastructure investments. However, instead of strategically linking Readiness 2030 with the considerations identified by Letta, Draghi and Niinistö, the EU is slow to connect central dots between readiness, competitiveness and energy security.

This lack of attention to the criticality of energy transition for readiness and military capabilities risks becoming a missed opportunity considering the strategic imperative for Europe to reduce its dependency on imported fossil fuels, the vulnerabilities of oil and gas supply chains and infrastructure militaries rely on, and the operational advantages of clean technologies. It also limits the potential to capitalise on large-scale defence spending for wider societal gains, i.e. by positioning this highly innovative, risk-absorbing sector as a demand lever and key driver of the EU’s overall competitiveness in cleantech and other strategic sectors.

Key recommendations

  • Apply a "security premium": Policy could strategically incentivize procurement for innovative clean technologies that demonstrably enhance both energy security and military readiness.
  • Unlock EU clean innovation funding for defence: Horizon Europe, the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and the European Competitiveness Fund can play a critical role in catalysing dual-use energy innovations and de-risking private capital.
  • Secure shared material supply chains: Defence procurement should be explicitly linked with circular economy objectives and joint stockpiling strategies to secure the supply of materials needed for both clean energy transition and advanced defence technologies.
  • Strengthen inter-institutional coordination: Institutions could provide further platforms for cross-sectoral dialogue, like the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CF SEDSS), to link (national) defence priorities with EU-wide transition objectives.

 

This text is based on extracts from a comment written by Hannah Lentschig and Louise van Schaik (The Clingendael Institute) for the Armament Industry Research Group's paper series on "Greening defence: Framing the stakes for industrial and military capabilities". To read the complete piece, follow the link here.

Photo credit from Hacı Elmas on Unsplash.

 

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