The European Commission is adding €130 million for drones and counter-drone systems at the EU’s external borders, it said on 5 October. The money comes from the Border Management and Visa Instrument, a home-affairs fund, not from the defence budget.
It tops up €250 million announced in December 2025 and €169 million made available earlier this year for surveillance drones for Frontex and national authorities. Home-affairs money for drones now passes half a billion euro, the Commission said.
Magnus Brunner, the commissioner for internal affairs and migration, told interior ministers about the top-up on 1 October. “We will be topping up the initiative with another 130 million,” he said, Euronews reported.
On 13 October the Commission named who gets it: border authorities in 16 member states and Norway. They are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands. The Commission did not publish how much each receives.
The money pays for watching land and sea borders, ports, airports and crossing points. It also pays to fit drone and counter-drone systems into each country’s border watch. Countries add the projects to their national programmes under the fund.
It sits apart from the EU’s defence spending on drones under the European Defence Fund, which the Commission says it complements. The Commission’s February action plan on drone and counter-drone security includes a counter-drone centre of excellence.
The money can be spent until 31 December 2029.
