Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the statement made by the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, advocating further EU integration, including the creation of an EU defence capability.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The EU already has a range of capabilities to build and promote security, which can be complementary to those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The UK is working to make these more effective and to improve NATO/EU co-operation. But the Government has consistently made clear that we will oppose any measures which would undermine Member States’ competence for their own military forces or lead to competition and duplication with NATO. Complementarity with NATO is a principle that was reinforced by the European Councils on defence in June 2015 and December 2013.