Recital (12)

On 23 June 2022, the European Council decided to grant the status of candidate country to Ukraine, which expressed a strong will to link reconstruction with reforms on its European path. On 15 December 2023, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and declared that the Union and its Member States remain committed to contributing, for the long-term and together with partners, to security commitments to Ukraine which will help the latter to defend itself, resist destabilisation efforts and deter acts of aggression in the future. Strong support to Ukraine is a key priority for the Union and an appropriate response to the Union’s strong political commitment to support Ukraine for as long as necessary. On 5 March 2023, the Commission proposed to create an Instrument (the Ukraine Support Instrument) to address the damage caused by Russia’s war of aggression to the Ukrainian Defence Technological and Industrial Base (the Ukrainian DTIB) and to support its reconstruction, recovery and modernisation, taking into account its possible future integration into the EDTIB. The Ukrainian DTIB has significantly developed its research, development and innovation capacities since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in order to address the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces. In that context, ensuring a closer cooperation between the EDTIB and the Ukrainian DTIB would allow access by the EDTIB to those capabilities and would contribute to the objective of fostering the competitiveness and innovation of the EDTIB, while being consistent with the continuous support of the Union to the strengthening of the defence manufacturing capacities of Ukraine. Accordingly, in light of the common objectives and goals of the Union and Ukraine in the area of defence research and development and in light of the benefits for both sides which can be expected from a closer integration in that regard, it is appropriate to associate Ukraine to the EDF.