Strict French rules cost Paris one billion euros in EU security funding program

France has received €15.1 billion out of the €16.2 billion it requested under the EU’s SAFE (Security Action for Europe) programme, the European Commission has approved.

The shortfall was attributed to strict eligibility criteria originally pushed by France itself, according to Financial Times (FT).

Paris insisted that 65% of the value of defence products should come from EU countries, with the share of third countries capped at 35%. However, these same rules ended up affecting French projects involving British partners.

In particular, this concerns the MBDA joint venture, which produces Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles and includes both French and British operations.

Despite the setback, Paris maintained that its position remained unchanged. “We fully support the eligibility criteria associated with Safe, which we advocated for ourselves,” said a French official. “Safe is a means to develop and support the European [defence industry], which is the whole point of European preference.”

London signed a defence agreement with the EU last year, but negotiations over a participation fee collapsed after France urged the Commission to seek more than €6bn from the UK. Although the amount was later lowered to €2bn, the two sides still failed to reach an agreement.

By Jeyhun Aghazada