Recital (23)

As this Regulation aims to enhance the competitiveness and efficiency of the Union’s and Ukraine’s defence industries, and in order to ensure the protection of essential security and defence interests of the Union and its Member States, to benefit from Union financial support under the Programme and under the Ukraine Support Instrument, recipients of such financial support should be legal entities which are established and have their executive management structures in the Union, in associated countries or in Ukraine and which use for the purposes of the action infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources located on the territory of a Member State, of an associated country or of Ukraine. In addition, recipients of such financial support should not be subject to control by a non-associated third country other than Ukraine or by another third-country entity. In that context, control should be understood as the ability to exercise a decisive influence on a legal entity directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediate legal entities. Where Member States, associated countries or Ukraine are the recipients of such financial support, for the purpose of common procurement, equivalent criteria should apply to the contractors and subcontractors for the procurement contracts, with a view to ensuring that the same conditions apply to them while reflecting the fact that those contractors and subcontractors are not recipients of Union funding.