The war in Ukraine has been a catalyst for European defence. While measures have logically been taken in the area of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), two important acts were also adopted as a matter of urgency, in the field of defence, under the ordinary legislative procedure, in order to fund two short-term instruments from the EU budget, respectively supporting the joint purchase of defence products by Member States (the so-called EDIRPA Regulation (UE) 2023/2418, of 18 October 2023), and increasing the production of ammunition by those States, with a view to supplying Ukraine and replenishing national stocks (the so-called ASAP Regulation (UE) 2023/1525 of 20 July 2023). The adoption of European laws in the fundamentally intergovernmental sector of defence may seem counterintuitive, since the European Commission, which proposed these texts and the European Parliament, which voted on them alongside the Council, lack the necessary competence in the field of CSDP. The fact remains that those institutions are competent in the ‘Community’ fields of industry and the internal market, to which the legislation in question relates. Drafted while the EDIRPA and ASAP regulations were being finalised, and informed by frequent interviews with European Commission officials, the article analyses the content of these two texts while highlighting the differences between the regulations finally adopted by the co-legislators and the Commission’s proposals. The study shows that the Commission, which has always played an active role in the ‘creeping communitarisation’ of European defence, has distinguished itself, in the context of the war in Ukraine, with particularly bold proposals in favor of the independence of European defence, proposals that the Member States are not always ready to follow. The institutional system that prevails in the legal order of the European Union, and even more so, the particular features of the field in which it operates, contribute to maintaining its role within certain limits. Nevertheless, the article highlights the Commission’s now indispensable role in shaping a European Defence Union.