{"id":180020,"date":"2025-06-13T03:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180020\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T03:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:08:08","slug":"fury-as-france-moves-to-block-british-firms-from-eus-e800bn-defence-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180020\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury as France moves to block British firms from EU\u2019s \u20ac800bn defence | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

France is facing a major backlash after it emerged Paris is pushing to shut British arms companies out of the EU\u2019s flagship defence programme \u2013 despite a recent push to reset post-Brexit<\/a> ties.<\/p>\n

According to a diplomatic source quoted by The Telegraph<\/a>, France is leading efforts to restrict member states using the new European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) to weapons made mostly within the bloc.<\/p>\n

The EU Commission has hailed EDIP as the largest overhaul of Europe\u2019s defence industry, aimed at channelling huge sums of cash into joint weapons procurement and ramping up ammunition and hardware production.<\/p>\n

The scheme \u2013 six months in the making \u2013 is part of a wider drive to spend \u20ac800 billion on defence by 2030, amid mounting concerns over Russian aggression.<\/p>\n

But French diplomats are now insisting that EDIP funding should only benefit companies based in the EU, along with Norway and Ukraine<\/a>. That would effectively ban UK firms from participating, despite Britain\u2019s recent landmark defence<\/a> and security pact with Brussels.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 a move seen as deliberately designed to exclude the UK.<\/p>\n

It also means Britain would be blocked from taking part in joint procurement projects under the EDIP umbrella.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even a month ago, we solemnly declared the turning of pages and opening of new chapters in our relationship with the UK,\u201d an EU diplomat told The Telegraph. \u201cYet, at the first occasion to turn those words into action, we have slammed the book shut.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also growing fears that France\u2019s hard-line stance could threaten EU funding for factories producing Patriot missile<\/a> systems, which are of US origin \u2013 despite urgent NATO warnings that European countries must boost air defence by 400 per cent to guard against a possible Russian onslaught.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems self-defeating to exclude investments in the one readily available air defence system, simply because it\u2019s American,\u201d the diplomat added.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron has long championed EU defence schemes as a way to strengthen the bloc\u2019s own industry \u2013 and has opposed directing funds to foreign firms, including those in Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France is facing a major backlash after it emerged Paris is pushing to shut British arms companies out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[5322,74017,2993,2000,74016,299,36,74018],"class_list":{"0":"post-180020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-brexit-news","9":"tag-british-arms-firms","10":"tag-defence","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-eu-defence-programme","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-post-brexit-relations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114673857674918252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}