Lots of email like this:

The main problem at this time with the EU establishing a military is the
fact that there are 3 main centers of military production and R&D in the EU
and they are all running their own programs with little integration and so
the price per unit goes up.
There are 3 Main Battle Tank R&D and production lines – France with the
Leclerc, UK with Challenger 2, Germany with Leopard 2. While they share some
common systems, mainly the main gun, their production is low-volume across
all three lines.
There are now 2 fighters being produced in the EU, EF-2000 Eurofighter and
JAS39 Gripen, while the F-35 JSF will be the light fighter to replace
Harrier and F-16 and F-104.
If one takes into account the Eastern European EU states, it’s a hodge-podge
of American and Soviet gear now, with some new purchases of Gripens.
They have limited heavy-lift cargo in the C-17s the RAF leases, no bombers,
no internal development of JDAM class weapons, no long range SAMs like
Patriot or the S-300 from Russia.
I could go on for an hour about the technical problems of the EU’s military,
but I won’t bore you.
They need to do a lot of work to become an equal of Russia or China, and
tons of work to become an equal of the US.