Britain's exclusion from the EU defense fund backfired on France itself

France's attempt to prevent Britain from accessing the EU defense fund backfired on Paris, depriving it of available European loans that the government planned to spend on Franco-British weapons projects.

The Financial Times reports this, citing three sources.

"France requested 16.2 billion euros from the EU defense fund, but the EC approved only 15.1 billion euros, as projects involving Britain did not meet the criteria that the French themselves had insisted on," the article notes.

Last spring, Brussels approved the SAFE lending mechanism worth 150 billion euros to increase joint defense procurement.

Among the projects excluded from selection were developments by missile manufacturer MBDA (jointly owned by Airbus, British BAE Systems, and Italian Leonardo), one source clarified. The British and French divisions of MBDA produce the long-range Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles used by Ukraine.

France demanded that 65% of the value of products financed from the fund come from the EU single market (including Norway and Iceland) or from Ukraine. Contractors from other countries may account for only 35% of the value if they have not signed a security and defense partnership agreement with the bloc and agreed to finance the program. To date, only Canada meets these two conditions.

Last year, London signed a defense agreement with Brussels, but negotiations on the size of the contribution collapsed after Paris insisted that the EC demand more than 6 billion euros from the British. The amount was later reduced to 2 billion euros, but the parties failed to reach an agreement.

A senior EU diplomat noted that the rejected Franco-British project illustrates the need to "build bridges between the ambitions of leaders" and what happens "at the practical level."