Defence Investment Market and Private Capital Mobilisation: Building Europe’s Fiscal Ecosystem for Strategic Readiness

The Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 reframes defence finance as a central pillar of Europe’s strategic autonomy and competitiveness. The documents collectively argue that deterrence today depends not only on industrial production or military capability but on the capacity to mobilise public and private capital at scale. By linking fiscal capacity to industrial output, supply-chain resilience, and long-term procurement, the White Paper for European Defence and the Roadmap 2030 establish a new doctrine of financial readiness. Defence is redefined as a productive investment that sustains employment, technological progress, and macroeconomic stability. The texts highlight the need to “mobilise public and private financing” and to create “a fiscal ecosystem for collective readiness.” This ecosystem connects the Union’s strategic priorities to its capital markets, ensuring that investment flows align with capability delivery. The purpose is not financialisation for its own sake but the disciplined channeling of capital toward measurable defence outputs under a transparent, rules-based framework. In doing so, the EU transforms defence from a reactive budget line into a long-term investment class structured around governance, oversight, and accountability.