UK Finance Minister John Healy is set to call on the European Union to include the United Kingdom in the ‘Made in Europe’ programme, which gives priority to products from EU member states when awarding public contracts in the defence, digital and industrial sectors.According to Report, citing the Financial Times, Healy will make this appeal at an informal meeting of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council, which opens on 18 September in Dublin.
Sources within the British government told the publication that the minister is prepared to negotiate a reset of relations with Brussels if it is in London’s interests to do so.
“In my view, closer ties with the EU mean that British companies, wherever they are located within the UK, gain broader access to both the supply chains they need and to customers, which will enable them to grow,” the publication quotes Healy as saying.
According to the article, at the meeting in Dublin, the British minister will call for “strengthening European unity” and avoiding a repeat of the situation in 2025, when negotiations on the UK’s access to the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence fund ended in failure.
