European Parliament Adopts the Defence Readiness Omnibus — Defence-Plant Permits in 42 Working Days, Granted by Default if the Deadline Lapses
Strasbourg, 16 September 2026
Key points
- The plenary adopted the three files of the Defence Readiness Omnibus on 16 September, on texts agreed with the Council on 10 June: permit-granting by 540 votes to 105 with 22 abstentions, transfers and procurement by 549 to 92 with 27, defence investment by 530 to 125 with 12
- A national authority has 42 working days to decide on a defence-readiness project, may extend twice by up to 60 days in exceptional circumstances, so 102 working days at most, and if it misses the deadline the permit is granted; the promoter must be notified of a tacit approval within eight working days
- The transfers file creates two general transfer licences for defence products moving inside the Union, one for certified suppliers and recipients and one for industrial partnerships, extends framework agreements from seven to ten years and raises procurement thresholds
- The investment file revises European Defence Fund award criteria, widens support for small firms, makes testing costs in Ukraine eligible and allows duly justified derogations from EU environmental and chemicals law for defence purposes; the rules enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal
The European Parliament adopted the Defence Readiness Omnibus on 16 September, putting a 42-working-day clock on national permits for defence plants and attaching a default to it: an authority that stays silent has approved.
The package is the Commission's fifth omnibus, tabled in support of the up to EUR 800 billion ReArm Europe plan, and was agreed in trilogue with the Council on 10 June; after Wednesday's vote it awaits the Council's formal adoption and publication. The permit regulation, with Henrik Dahl of the EPP and Lucia Yar of Renew as co-rapporteurs passed 540 to 105. Yar's summary of the mechanism: "If a national authority misses the deadline, the permit is granted, so no administration can leave a project waiting in silence."
The other two files are the quieter industrial change. Two general transfer licences, which each member state must publish, replace case-by-case licensing for a share of intra-EU movements of defence components; ten-year framework agreements and higher thresholds give procurement agencies longer instruments with fewer tenders. The derogation from environmental and chemicals law drew the largest opposition of the three votes, 125 against.
The clock runs from the authority's own confirmation that an application is complete, so the 42 days will be contested before they start. No licensing body in Europe will let an explosives or propellant plant be permitted by lapse; the rational response is to move the delay upstream, into completeness checks and requests for further documents, where the regulation sets no limit that the vote advertised. Großwald's expectation is therefore that the rule shows up as more applications declared incomplete, not as plants approved by silence, and that the 102-day ceiling becomes the working figure for anything involving energetics. Signal No. 147 names the two observables that would prove that wrong: a permit granted by lapse, and a capital invoking the chemicals derogation in public.
