French legion paratroopers on patrol near the Eiffel Tower | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images EU to US: Don’t worry about our military plans American letter expressed fears about duplication between the EU and NATO.

The European Union on Thursday told the U.S. there is no reason to be concerned about the bloc's new military initiatives.

The U.S. had raised concerns about the EU military pact called Pesco, launched in December 2017, and a new €13 billion European Defense Fund (EDF) on which the EU institutions have reached a provisional agreement.

The fears were outlined in a letter sent on May 1 by Ellen M. Lord, the U.S undersecretary of defence, and Andrea L. Thompson, undersecretary of state, to Federica Mogherini, the EU’s top diplomat.

In the letter, seen by POLITICO, the U.S. officials complained that these initiatives risk "EU capabilities developing in a manner that produces duplication, non-interoperable military systems, diversion of scarce defense resources, and unnecessary competition between NATO and the EU.”

It said the EDF's rules would include what they called "poison pills" that would "preclude third-country participation by non-EU headquartered companies, including those from the United States.”

The two new military initiatives will help the EU to spend better and more

And the Americans warned that “similar reciprocally imposed U.S. restrictions would not be welcomed by our European partners and Allies, and we would not relish having to consider them in the future.”

The EU denied there were risks and tried to “clarify any misunderstandings that may exist,” according to a reply from Pedro Serrano, the deputy secretary general of the External Action Service, the EU's diplomatic body, and Timo Pesonen, the European Commission's director general for internal market and industry.

The two new military initiatives will help the EU to spend better and more, said the two EU officials. They will “deepen cooperation to make more efficient use of defense spending in the EU” and this will also “help member states that are NATO allies fulfill their commitments within the Alliance.”

The resulting defense capabilities “will not be owned by the EU but by its member states” and they will potentially be available to NATO countries, the EU officials added.

For these reasons “it is clear that Pesco and EDF are designed to support capabilities that are coherent, complementary and interoperable with NATO.”

A major bone of contention is the participation of non-EU countries in the two initiatives. The EDF rules on this have been agreed but the Pesco ones have not (EU ambassadors are expected to discuss them next week).

In the case of the EDF, the conditions that apply to receive funding (including no transfer of sensitive information outside the EU and no transfer of intellectual property rights outside the EU) are “similar to the ones imposed by the U.S on EU companies aiming to access publicly funded U.S Defense” research and development programs, wrote the two EU officials.

The difference, they argued, is that while the U.S has a discretionary system, the EU is setting up clear rules. Furthermore, they said, the American system has resulted in “an extremely limited participation of EU companies (only 0.17% of U.S defense R&D expenditure being awarded to EU companies in 2016).”

Also, Pesco and the EDF “do not affect the EU defense procurement market, which remains more open than that of the U.S,” the EU officials wrote.

The defense trade balance “is resolutely in favor of the U.S,” the EU pair wrote. According to U.S State Department figures, between 2014 and 2016 U.S arms exports to the EU were worth $62.9 billion while EU arms exports to the U.S were estimated at $7.6 billion, they added.

The “EU market will remain significantly more open than the U.S market. There's no 'Buy American Act' in the EU,” stressed the two officials.