German-led push to open EU defense deal to UK and Canada hits French opposition
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-leads-push-to-open-eu-defense-deal-to-u-k/
Posted by FeigenbaumC
German-led push to open EU defense deal to UK and Canada hits French opposition
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-leads-push-to-open-eu-defense-deal-to-u-k/
Posted by FeigenbaumC
25 Comments
I know it’s actually because of the French wanting to use this to boost their defense industry by hobbling major competitors like ours, but the idea of the French preventing major European security deals over fish sounds like something from an EU political satire
That’s nice of them. Someone remind them of the support we gave them in 1914-18 and 1939-45. But if they think that they can put down Putin on their own, more power to their elbow. Just don’t coming running for help next time when it all goes wrong.
Bloody cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Germany knows UK defence industry has some good kit and the UK are part of the European defense , the island of britain has always been, always will be, a back stop for any invasion of Europe , a aircraft carrier of arms in the north sea.
The French Military and the British Military train together regularly and there’s an enormous amount of trust between them. Commando joint training is a good example.
French Politicians and the French State are France first, that’s respectable. They believe in maintaining their culture.
But the French Government idiocy when it comes to “not U.K.” is going to cause enormous defense procurement problems for Europe.
The U.K. makes some ridiculously good kit, Starstreak is a great example. If France can put Europe first then we have a chance.
Rather be aligned to the questionable US than the unreliable EU
This is good news. If we have no strategic interest in the EU and the independence and territorial integrity of its members, we can sit out the next European war protected on our island by the sea and nukes.
Yes. Unfortunately the brits are now under USA “protection”
It’s our own fault for leaving the EU. Rightist scum listen ti Farage and this us what we get. Bkw to Trump or isolated.
*”France wants to compromise defence of Europe to make themselves a bit of extra money”
Foolish. They need the UK more than the UK needs them when it comes to defence.
Then we should leave the EU to its own devices. Let’s worry about our own industry and work with countries that will actually treat us with respect. If we can’t align now, we will never be able to.
If France don’t want us to be part of this then they can’t ask us for help if Russian troops start entering the EU.
We must build our own alliances with CANZUK and others who want to join.
This idea that we can have closer ties with the EU simply isn’t going to happen as it’s an organisation with 27 self interested nations with vetoes.
It’s fine. We’ll sit out the next European war, we deserve a rest.
We’ll keep our fish, the EU can keep the Russians.
As always, the French are only really in it for themselves.
What if we sweeten the pot by offering the french access to our cutting edge long bow technology? I hear they’re still fond of crossbows.
Honestly, when it comes to modern defense, if Britain has lesser ambition, all it really needs to do is to invest everything in air defense, to make sure none of russian’s missiles would ever hit British soils. Russia could never invade Britain, do they even have a navy still?
Germans know all too well how significant of an ally UK would be. As do the fucking French!
I think a big part of it is the fact that the UK defense industry is veeeery closely associated with the United States industry.
Ooh nice to see the bots out in force trying to drive wedges between European countries. Have we upset/worried someone?
This whole situation is ridiculous. This is solely about defence and nothing else should come into. Leave your egos at the door France, it’s not time for ‘how to benefit’ from this either. Just get together and let’s get Europes defences really strong. Get the job done!
Look at history and how amazingly we can do things when we put our minds together. Concorde anyone?? France and Britain working hand in hand to produce the most iconic commercial plane in history. It still holds multiple records today and still hasn’t been matched.
Imagine if that kind of co operation was Europe wide? German manufacturing, British science, Italian Finesse, French innovation, Scandinavian functionality etc etc
The excellent eurofighter typhoon is another example of across Europe co operation, a world class multirole fighter jet
If this whole things gets derailed by red tape and then mainland Europe gets Invaded, it would be an ironic and sad end
Did none of us learn anything from the previous world wars? Burying your head in the sand won’t work. It’s time to co operate, collaborate and be prepared
What are we doing here, exactly?
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/can-non-eu-companies-be-part-eus-big-defence-fund-2025-03-21/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/can-non-eu-companies-be-part-eus-big-defence-fund-2025-03-21/)
Non-EU is allowed in. The EU is spending with Japan and South Korea, there’s no reason here for anything to be blocked.
>WHICH COUNTRIES CAN PROCURE VIA THE SCHEME?
Countries that have a Security and Defence Partnership with the EU include some of those above and Japan and South Korea.
There really isn’t any barrier to this that I can see. Fishing disputes are brought up constantly but I haven’t heard a diplomat from France or anywhere bring up fishing disputes, its just been reported via reuters or via other anonymous sources which may as well be as useful as a dirtrag.
If the EU wanted to priortize spending money on EU defense contracts, that’s fine. It makes no logical sense though to be looking outside of the EU however and picking 2 countries, both of which are an entire continent away and which most importantly, **have closer ties to the USA than the EU.**
Any excuse from the EU of saying “we should invest in EU countries” is out the window. Any excuse the UK could make would be braindead considering we’re now in a unique position to make stronger diplomatic ties and anything here would straight benefit us.
If it really is down to fucking fish, god help us. I doubt it though.
The other 26 countries in Europe will have to decide whether they want the UK’s help more or less than they want the French to have a fish deal.
It’s mad that if there is another war in Europe, Germany would be on our side for the first time
Just ignore the French then. We do that all the time
When we were in the Eu, France was one of the countries that always used veto or abstain the UK vote when our MP were on the table so no change there.