On 11 December 2025 the UK hosted the fourth annual dialogue between the Department for Business and Trade and France’s Direction générale des Entreprises. The session was led by Amanda Brooks CBE for DBT and Thomas Courbe for DGE, with officials from both embassies present, according to the UK government notice published on 30 December.
Established in 2023, the dialogue convenes senior officials and policy specialists to identify practical areas for cooperation. This year, discussions centred on the UK–France Industrial Strategy Partnership agreed earlier in the year, positioning the forum as a delivery channel for joint industrial policy priorities.
Signed in London on 10 July 2025, the partnership sets out closer cooperation across technology, clean energy industries and advanced manufacturing, including support for workers and SMEs adapting to an AI‑enabled economy. The joint statement also proposes giving the DBT–DGE dialogue an oversight role and adding a ministerial element to the meetings.
The December dialogue recorded commitments to intensify collaboration and share practices on two immediate workstreams: SME AI adoption and economic security. The partnership’s text frames economic security as work on supply chains and resilience, while maintaining a business‑led approach through the UK–France Business Forum.
For firms operating in both markets, the signal is administrative alignment rather than new regulation. Officials intend to develop a joint roadmap and to use the dialogue to steer delivery, which should translate into more consistent guidance for SMEs and clearer contact points for cross‑border projects. The statement is non‑binding in legal terms.
The partnership builds on existing UK–France cooperation in supply chains, decarbonisation and SME support. It references practical exercises already undertaken, including a semiconductor stress test in January 2025, and sets out plans for a joint roadmap under the dialogue’s oversight and a new ministerial bilateral.