EU countries to share defense contracting

Twenty-two of the 25 EU countries signed a pact to open up borders to competition between firms of various states for defense contracts. Three states won't participate, though. Spain and Hungary said "no thanks," and Denmark has never been into the Common Foreign and Security Policy/Defense and Security Policy.

This article in the UK's Business Week sums it up. Got the link from EU Referendum blog.

It's somewhat surprising that France is involved, even though they have been in defense business dealings with the Brits and others. More on this later.

And the sovereignty implications are interesting. Sure, there are those who say military might no longer matters; it's all about trade. And of course the slippery slope is a logical fallacy. But what if these countries have their arsenal built in country X... and country X turns hostile?

Then again, states need energy to survive (and produce weapons), and the French-German energy co-op in the 1950s is the rock upon which the EU as we know it was built. So what can you do.