UK talks up EU defence ties to counter tilt towards 'Made in Europe' weapons

Good morning. Bulgaria's Russia-friendly interim president Iliana Yotova comfortably beat her pro-western rival in yesterday's election, exit polls predicted, consolidating the country's tilt away from Ukraine.

Today, I report on a visit by Britain's defence minister to Brussels and Berlin, and our tech correspondent interviews the head of a company pitched as Poland's answer to Palantir.

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Mutual defence

Britain and the EU should work even closer together to protect Europe, support Ukraine and importantly build the modern weapons necessary for both, the UK's defence minister will say today, in visits to Brussels and Berlin aimed at enhancing military and industrial co-operation.

Context: Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's mercurial attitude to Nato mean defence has been one of the best areas of EU-UK co-operation since London left the bloc in 2020.

However, the UK is concerned about the EU's "Buy European" leanings on procurement and trade, including for defence.

Defence secretary Wes Streeting will stress the importance of British and EU defence companies working together as seamlessly as British and EU troops are training to fight shoulder-to-shoulder. The UK has been excluded from recent EU defence industrial initiatives after clashing with countries such as France championing a "Made in Europe" approach.

Streeting will meet the EU's chief diplomat Kaja Kallas, followed by the bloc's defence industry commissioner Andrius Kubilius.

He will then travel to Berlin to meet German defence minister Boris Pistorius -- a vocal supporter of including the UK in European defence-industrial initiatives.

"Defence is one of the most important areas for strong co-operation and partnership between the UK and the EU," said Streeting ahead of the meeting.

"Together, [the UK and EU] are stepping up our support for Ukraine and strengthening European defence to meet the challenges of a more dangerous world."

The visit is Streeting's first to Brussels as defence secretary but comes a week after he met Pistorius, Kallas and the Italian, French and Polish defence ministers in Paris.

Strengthening diplomatic ties with the UK is also a keen focus for Kallas, who will host Streeting after attending the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta this weekend, where she and British foreign secretary Ed Miliband teamed up to lambast Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Talks with Kallas are likely to include a heavy focus on Ukraine, where the former Estonian prime minister is seeking to strike an agreement for freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to protect civilian shipping and agricultural exports.

Streeting's Eurotrip will also help prepare the defence aspects of a UK-EU leaders' summit on November 20, where London is expected to offer EU students cheaper university fees worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Chart du jour: 'Poor' Ireland

Ireland is precariously reliant on corporation taxes, with half coming from Apple, Eli Lilly and Microsoft -- a key reason why rich Ireland still feels poor.

Poland's Palantir

The Polish tech company DataWalk is positioning itself as Europe's answer to US data analytics giant Palantir. But despite Brussels' push for tech sovereignty, European governments remain slow to buy homegrown technology, its boss told Barbara Moens.

Context: European governments are trying to cut their reliance on US tech companies. Those sovereignty concerns, combined with growing unease over Palantir's political ties and operating model, have created an opening for European-owned data platforms such as DataWalk and the French software group ChapsVision.

Paweł Wieczyński, DataWalk's co-founder and chief executive, described his company's ambitions as a fight against "Goliath" in an apparent reference to Palantir. "We want to create the best technology in the world."

His clients include the US Department of Justice, the Polish police and several banks and European intelligence services. The company processes vast amounts of data to detect financial fraud, uncover criminal networks and identify security threats.

DataWalk faced pressure from early investors to relocate to the US, Wieczyński said, "and we said foolishly, romantically, no, because we want to prove the case that Europe can create leading technologies".

Wieczyński's family history is interwoven with Poland's tragic 20th century; his great-grandfather fought in the underground Polish army and was tortured during the Soviet occupation, while his grandfather was active in the anti-communist Polish Solidarity movement.

"We always had this in the family that we want to preserve our autonomy, we want to be free, we want to be able to decide about ourselves," Wieczyński said.

Wieczyński acknowledged heightened interest from European public authorities but said the enthusiasm has been slow to translate into contracts.

"Why on earth wouldn't you start using it, guys," he said. "Instead what we get is a lot of: 'Please come to this panel, please speak here, great job. Don't call, we'll call you'."

What to watch today

* Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker begins a week-long visit to China.

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