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British defence suppliers must not be blocked from bidding for contracts bankrolled by the European Union’s €150bn (£126bn) military fund, bosses at Airbus (AIR.PA) have warned.
Michael Schoellhorn, defence chief at the the aerospace giant, which is behind the Eurofighter Typhoon warplane, said the UK should be brought into the European fold as part of a push to establish military capabilities independent of the US.
He said: “I’m personally not opposed in principle. I think we need to think of the UK as part of Europe when it comes to European defence.
“But obviously there are some things that need to be brought together a little more closely that have drifted apart for some time.”
Mr Schoellhorn said that while it was reasonable to treat Britain differently to other non-EU countries, UK access to the Security Action for Europe (Safe) initiative would likely require a new security agreement to be put in place.
It comes after Brussels set out strict rules for the fund, which is intended to help support key military projects amid doubts about the future of the Western alliance and Donald Trump’s commitment to defending Europe.
Those rules include a “buy European” clause that means it can only be used to purchase weaponry from EU countries and Ukraine – freezing out UK suppliers such as BAE Systems (BA.L) and others from countries such as Turkey.
Under EU proposals, the fund will only consider buying British weapons if the Government signs a security pact with Brussels, something that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has sought to tie to loosening post-Brexit restrictions on access to fishing grounds.
Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Airbus, said the question of the UK bidding for contracts funded from the Safe fund came down to a “political decision”, and that British defence players were already integrated with their EU counterparts across a wide range of programmes.
He said: “We industrial companies are across borders. Airbus is German, French, Spanish and British. Eurofighter has BAE Systems as a partner and MBDA [the missile manufacturer] is a joint venture between BAE, Airbus and Leonardo (LDO.MI).”
While BAE and Airbus collaborate widely, they are in opposing camps in developing a Eurofighter successor. The UK company is developing the Tempest model with Italy and Japan, while Airbus is pursuing a rival design with France’s Dassault (DSY.PA).
Mr Faury said it is vital that European governments cooperate on defence purchases to establish a “real sovereign industrial and technical base where you can really control and be certain of what you need at a given point in time.”