🇫🇷🇪🇺 FT: France pushed for strict EU defence-fund rules that limited participation by non-EU companies, including those with 🇬🇧UK links.

Those same rules have now backfired: France received €15.1bn instead of the €16.2bn it requested from the EU's €150bn SAFE fund because some Franco-British projects—particularly involving missile maker MBDA—were deemed ineligible.

The rules require 65% of funded defence products to originate within the EU (plus 🇳🇴Norway, 🇮🇸Iceland, or 🇺🇦Ukraine).