The Council of the EU on Monday gave the green light to the first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, covering drones and counter-drone systems, maritime defence, space, air and missile defence and the protection of the EU’s eastern flank, with Cyprus participating in four of the five projects.

“Today we turn ambition into action,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The projects are aimed at strengthening Europe’s defence readiness and industrial capacity by allowing member states to jointly develop major capabilities that would be too large or complex for individual countries to pursue alone.

Cyprus is participating in the Drone and Counter-Drone European Resolve, Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence, EU Federated Integrated Air and Missile Defence and Eastern Flank Watch projects.

The first concerns the development and large-scale deployment of drones and counter-drone technologies to address critical capability gaps, while the martime project aims to create an integrated and interoperable system to detect, deter and respond to threats at sea and on the seabed, including threats to critical underwater infrastructure.

The missile defence project will focus on integrated air and missile defence, combining early-warning capabilities with coordinated command-and-control systems.

The fifth project, Eastern Flank Watch, is intended to strengthen security along the EU’s eastern borders across land, air, sea and cyberspace. Cyprus is among the participants despite being geographically removed from the Union’s eastern land border. The Commission has said the project is intended to benefit all member states and could expand its geographical area of interest.

Irish Defence Minister Helen McEntee said the projects marked “decisive steps” towards strengthening Europe’s security.

“Working closely with our partners Norway and Ukraine, we are taking decisive steps together to protect our space, our skies, our seas, our undersea cables and the citizens who depend on them,” she said.