{"id":606988,"date":"2025-12-02T08:14:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606988\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:14:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:14:19","slug":"greece-joins-eu-defense-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606988\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece joins EU defense program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Dendias.jpg?v=1764661068\" alt=\"Greece joins EU defense program\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Dendias-960x600.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>[InTime News]<\/p>\n<p>Greece joined 18 other European Union member-states in submitting national plans Sunday for the SAFE (Security Action for Europe) program, which offers low-interest loans to strengthen European defense capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>The submissions completed the program\u2019s first milestone. Canada secured full participation after successfully concluding negotiations with the European Commission Monday, becoming the only non-EU country with complete access to the mechanism. Britain, Turkey and South Korea remained excluded.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey\u2019s potential participation faces significant obstacles. Greece and Cyprus would veto Turkish involvement, with France also likely to object, the Commission acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>A Commission spokesperson noted that while third countries can technically participate up to 35% in member-state projects, \u201cparticipation of third countries up to 35% can technically and legally be limited if we consider it necessary\u201d to protect EU interests. Britain rejected the program due to high EU financial demands.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Minister Nikos Dendias told EU defense ministers meeting in Brussels that Greece \u201chas much to offer\u201d in discussions about EU defense readiness through 2030.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the \u2018Agenda of 2030\u2019 we can give the EU our own perspective and understanding, a holistic approach and holistic protection,\u201d Dendias said.<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen of the 19 participating states included Ukraine in their national plans, with investments worth billions, the Commission reported without identifying the countries.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission will evaluate submitted plans in coming weeks, aiming for initial disbursements of up to 15% of requested loans by year-end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[InTime News] Greece joined 18 other European Union member-states in submitting national plans Sunday for the SAFE (Security&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[473,2000,299,5187,12072,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-606988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-foreign-affairs","13":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115648978867942325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}