EU ❤️ UK Defence - Again
'We need to drop egos and nationalism and collaborate like our lives depend on it—because they do.'
Welcome to a special edition of the Resilience Media newsletter, dedicated to a guest post we love. In this piece, Marc C. Lange explores a thawing of the tensions between the UK and the European Union that opened up after Brexit, which comes at a critical time for the defence of democracy. Lange serves as a strategic advisor at the intersection of defence procurement and startup innovation. Find him at 2.ventures.
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-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
“On defence, the Brits are basically back inside the tent.” - An unnamed EU diplomat in yesterday’s Financial Times.
The EU and UK are finally dating again, and I love it.
The informal meeting of European finance ministers here in Warsaw has already delivered the outcome I was hoping for most: we’re swallowing our pride and opening the door to our British friends again—with strong reciprocity on the other side of the Channel.
This shift is hugely significant. Not just because we need the UK’s defence industrial base to secure Europe, and not just because the UK has been ahead of the curve in adopting Ukraine’s defence-tech playbook—pushing hard for more startups in defence. It’s also because recent developments like a £400M frontline Ukraine testing fund for new materiel, a 10% defence budget allocation (roughly €7Bn) toward new technologies, and a flurry of informal VC and PE activity over the past few weeks all point to a clear momentum the EU should not ignore—and hopefully won’t.
But there’s more. This renewed cooperation on security isn’t just symbolic. It could serve as the start of deeper collaboration. The UK and EU are back in sync, and the upside is clear: jobs, IP, economic growth, digital transformation, market harmonisation, re-industrialisation. Don’t forget that this emerging “New Union” includes joint procurement, the key lever for scaling up Europe’s defence capabilities. Joint procurement will get us better prices, more efficient buys, and longer-term contracts for our industrial base.
If we can legislate this quickly and with this much clarity, it gives me hope that we can also overhaul outdated procurement processes and take a broad axe—not a scalpel—to EU export restrictions. These topics might seem dry, but they matter: trade friction quietly kills both established and up-and-coming defence firms. We also need to strengthen private equity and venture pipelines across the EU. I urge our French and Danish friends to set aside their disputes over fishing for the greater good. They helped lead the Coalition of the Willing—it would be a shame to let issues like fishing rights block progress now.
Aside from the UK and EU—especially Ursula von der Leyen and Keir Starmer—I’m grateful for Poland’s leadership through these tense times. I can’t think of a better-suited host for these meetings or a more serious voice in pushing for rearmament. I’m also glad Rachel Reeves joined the sessions. That’s a strong and necessary signal. And we should all acknowledge the hundreds of lawmakers and civil servants making this possible behind the scenes.
It’s just common sense to include the UK in SAFE loan instruments, just as it’s common sense to align on securing our borders and values. Many in the industry worry that entrenched politics and doctrine will stop European rearmament before it starts. Russia is betting on that. The signals we’ve seen this weekend send a clear message to the markets that we’re moving in the right direction.
Next, Europe must tighten collaboration between local MoDs, the EDA, and NATO. Procurement agencies (NSPA, NSPO) and R&D programs (DIANA/NIF, EUDIS/EDF) need real capabilities—not just funding but people, process, and teeth. That means merging collaborative and pilot programs across dual-use and resilience technologies under the EDF and EUDIS umbrella, boosting the budget significantly, hiring commercial experts, and building a single European “front door” for tech pilots and defence spin-ins, in close coordination with NATO.
That front door should connect directly to a Joint Procurement Office—one that can help de-risk startup technologies, walk them from concept to spec-compliance, and work closely with warfighters and requirements writers. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We can—and should—learn from Ukraine and the US. Arrogance would be repeating their mistakes.
In the near future, when an innovator approaches NATO’s NSPO or NSPA, or the EDA, I want the official to direct them to that front door—where the team speaks commercial, knows the process, and can move from pitch deck to pilot in weeks. This is not a dream. It already works in Ukraine and the US. From recent conversations, I’m optimistic that the Baltics are heading there too.
Now is the time to think EUnity. We need to drop egos and nationalism and collaborate like our lives depend on it—because they do. Europe is already a union of nations. Now we must become a union of defence industries, each contributing their strengths to build something larger than the sum of its parts. The VCs are ready. The startups are ready. The banks are beginning to move. We’re on the right track. Let’s keep going.
