France is facing a major backlash after it emerged Paris is pushing to shut British arms companies out of the EU’s flagship defence programme – despite a recent push to reset post-Brexit ties.
According to a diplomatic source quoted by The Telegraph, France is leading efforts to restrict member states using the new European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) to weapons made mostly within the bloc.
The EU Commission has hailed EDIP as the largest overhaul of Europe’s defence industry, aimed at channelling huge sums of cash into joint weapons procurement and ramping up ammunition and hardware production.
The scheme – six months in the making – is part of a wider drive to spend €800 billion on defence by 2030, amid mounting concerns over Russian aggression.
But French diplomats are now insisting that EDIP funding should only benefit companies based in the EU, along with Norway and Ukraine. That would effectively ban UK firms from participating, despite Britain’s recent landmark defence and security pact with Brussels.
Under the proposed rules, any project would be required to use technology with at least 85 per cent of its parts made within the bloc – a move seen as deliberately designed to exclude the UK.
It also means Britain would be blocked from taking part in joint procurement projects under the EDIP umbrella.
“Not even a month ago, we solemnly declared the turning of pages and opening of new chapters in our relationship with the UK,” an EU diplomat told The Telegraph. “Yet, at the first occasion to turn those words into action, we have slammed the book shut.”
There are also growing fears that France’s hard-line stance could threaten EU funding for factories producing Patriot missile systems, which are of US origin – despite urgent NATO warnings that European countries must boost air defence by 400 per cent to guard against a possible Russian onslaught.
“It seems self-defeating to exclude investments in the one readily available air defence system, simply because it’s American,” the diplomat added.
French President Emmanuel Macron has long championed EU defence schemes as a way to strengthen the bloc’s own industry – and has opposed directing funds to foreign firms, including those in Britain.