“The United States strongly opposes any changes to the Directive that would limit U.S. industry’s ability to support or otherwise participate in EU member state national defense procurements,” the U.S. administration wrote ahead of a planned update of EU defense procurement laws.
“Protectionist and exclusionary policies that strong-arm American companies out of the market — when Europe’s largest defense firms continue to greatly benefit from market access in the United States — are the wrong course of action,” it added.
Washington’s comments highlight a paradox in the U.S. approach to Europe: While the Trump administration has repeatedly told Europeans that it wants them to shoulder the bulk of the continent’s conventional defense, the U.S. doesn’t want that to come at the expense of American defense firms.
POLITICO previously reported that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau slammed European NATO allies for prioritizing their own defense industry over American arms suppliers during a closed-door meeting in December. The State Department co-signed the Trump administration’s contribution to the Commission’s survey.
Christopher Landau slammed European NATO allies for prioritizing their own defense industry over American arms suppliers during a closed-door meeting in December. | Omar Havana/Getty Images
Over the past few years, the European Commission has been trying to increase the share of European weaponry in the bloc’s arsenals and procurement contracts while it braces for potential conflict with Russia. For decades, the continent has heavily relied on American military equipment, ranging from F-35 fighter jets to HIMARS artillery systems and Patriot air defenses. Almost two-thirds of the bloc’s imported weapons are supplied by the U.S.
Such forceful pushback from the Trump administration also threatens to complicate any broader Buy European industrial effort from the Commission. It will test how far European countries are willing to go in becoming more independent from the U.S., which has become an increasingly unreliable partner in the age of Trump.
