Eastern Frontline
The Eastern Frontline podcast is hosted in the European Parliament by the Eastern Frontline Group (EFG), an alliance of 43 MEPs from 13 EU countries. Each episode, policymakers and experts discuss Europe’s most urgent security challenges, as well as the social, psychological, and human dimensions of resilience. .The podcast is produced in partnership with The Parliament Magazine.
Eastern Frontline
Can Europe Afford to Defend Itself? Rob Murray on the new Security & Resilience Bank
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Europe faces a strategic reality: deterrence requires more than political will — it requires the ability to finance it.
In this episode of the Eastern Frontline podcast, MEPs Reinis Pozņaks and Roberts Zīle speak with Rob Murray, the CEO of the Defence, Security & Resilience Bank, a former Head of Innovation at NATO and architect of the NATO Innovation Fund, to unpack why Europe’s defence financing model is no longer fit for purpose.
Murray explains:
- Why the defence industrial base cannot scale without access to credit
- How regulatory constraints block SMEs from entering defence supply chains
- Why the Defence, Security & Resilience Bank could be a game-changer
- The limits of the EIB’s mandate — and why complementary instruments are needed
- The strategic risk of defence inflation and multi-year procurement uncertainty
- How a transatlantic, Indo-Pacific coalition of shareholders could accelerate production
A clear message emerges: Europe needs new financial architecture if it wants real deterrence.