French defense minister calls for scrapping EU arms cash fund if it can’t be fixed

PARIS — French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Tuesday said that France “won’t budge” on ensuring a European Union effort to boost local defense companies favors European arms producers.

Otherwise, he added, it might be better to simply scrap the European Defence Industry Programme — which aims to spend €1.5 billion to foster the bloc’s weapons-makers and is currently under negotiation by EU institutions.

The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU failed to reach an agreement on EDIP last year and Poland will now shepherd the negotiations among national delegations.

France is the leader of a group of countries that wants the money largely reserved for European companies, with safeguards to prevent non-EU companies from easily accessing the fund. Other countries, including the Netherlands and Poland, want the money to fund procurement and production of non-EU equipment made under license on European soil, such as United States Patriot air defense systems.

It has the added political advantage of pandering to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.

Those capitals are interested in getting off-the-shelf weapons as quickly as possible to beef up their armed forces and to help Ukraine. They also want to benefit from EU cash to make foreign equipment locally: The Netherlands is looking to produce Patriots under license, while Poland is looking to co-manufacture South Korean gear.

But France — with the EU’s largest defense industry — is keen to ensure the continent preserves its own military-industrial complex and doesn’t become too reliant on Washington. For example, America’s Patriot directly competes with the Franco-Italian SAMP/T system made by MBDA, as well as the system’s next generation currently under development.

“The European agenda to support the defense industry is useful, but it must not lead to European taxpayers’ money being spent on the licensed production of American equipment,” Lecornu said in his New Year’s address.

Speaking before top military brass and industry CEOs, he added: “That’s what’s at stake in the current negotiations on EDIP, on which we won’t budge … In this area, it’s better to do nothing than to do something wrong.”

Lecornu also stressed that capitals, not the European Commission, should be in the driving seat when it comes to defense.

“The steering of priorities must remain with the member states, which are sovereign in defining their operational and capability requirements,” he said.

France is the EU’s top military power — and the only one with nuclear weapons. It wants European arms companies to play a key role in the rush to rearm — a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That invasion has also increased calls to boost defense spending by NATO member countries. France last year just made it over the alliance’s threshold of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

But ongoing political turmoil in Paris is raising questions over the country’s ability to keep increasing military expenditures.

Lecornu — who survived two government reshuffles since President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election in June — conceded the lack of a proper 2025 budget “threatens France’s rearmament.”

He committed to fight to ensure the planned €3 billion boost in military spending is maintained in the budget that Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government is expected to present this year.