The European Commission lashed out at Rome on Tuesday over delays in activating its €14.9 billion SAFE defence loan allocation, warning Italy that it has “no time to lose” when it comes to defence.

The warning came after Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani caused confusion in the Italian Parliament by saying Rome had “decided to use the full €14.9 billion of SAFE”, before later backtracking and clarifying that Italy had only “booked” the maximum amount available.

The government, he said, would decide “by the end of the year” how much it would actually use, suggesting the final figure could be between €6 billion and €9 billion.

Delays could also affect the redistribution of unused funds. Under SAFE rules, the Commission must reallocate any money not taken up by member states before the end of the year. “We need more than a couple of days in December to do that,” the spokesperson warned.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced two weeks ago while in Kyiv that around €10 billion of SAFE leftovers would be used to bolster drone production in Ukraine as part of a Defence Industrial Partnership.

The episode also triggered tensions inside Italy’s governing coalition, with the League pushing back against SAFE loans and insisting that parliament must first approve any decision to access the funds.

Opposition leader and former prime minister Matteo Renzi accused Tajani of creating confusion, arguing that SAFE funds were already reserved for Italy and that the government now needed to decide quickly whether to use them.

France already revised its plan down by around €1 billion when signing its loan agreement with the Commission. Estonia and Latvia also did not use their entire tentative allocations.

But some countries still have to finalise their loan agreement with the Commission, and Hungary’s new government has yet to send an updated version of its SAFE shopping list.

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