European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Council President Antonio Costa, ahead of the UK-EU summit at Lancaster House in London, on May 19, 2025. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
The reset in relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) has struggled to live up to expectations. Six months after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa with great fanfare on May 19, Brussels and London acknowledged on Friday, November 28, that they had failed to reach an agreement to include the UK defense industry in the new European defense funding instrument known as SAFE (for “Security Action for Europe”).
This collective failure by Europeans to present a united front comes at a critical moment as they seek to display solidarity with Kyiv and avert a potentially unfavorable US-Russian peace plan for Ukraine and the continent’s security.
The European Commission raised this €150 billion fund on the markets on behalf of approximately 20 countries, including France, Poland and Greece. It is intended to enable these countries to issue requests for proposals for “Made in Europe” military equipment, and is part of a package of measures set in motion to rearm the continent in the face of the Russian threat.
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