mr president where the eu can add value and when it does not undermine our sovereign interests or compete with organisations such as nato we can support it
for the most part this will mean adopting common positions on certain key issues and civil tasks in the field of humanitarian assistance or post-conflict reconstruction and development although i have to say that the track record of eupol in afghanistan does not inspire much confidence
the simple truth is that your role as eu foreign minister is to act as handmaiden for eu political integration
the effect of the external action service the chain of eu embassies around the world will be to undermine national representation in many capitals armed perversely with cash that has come from our nations in order to take forward someone else's foreign policy
the report before us on eu security and defence policy is a manifesto for eu military integration deliberately confusing military and civil crisis management in order to justify an eu role
it relies on a bogus narrative concerning eu operations and increasingly seeks to involve the commission in areas which are properly the responsibility of our nations and of the council
virtually every paragraph of this report advocates ratcheting up military eu integration at the expense of nato and the sovereign integrity of individual european countries
i recall one of the great red lines of the british labour government's negotiating stance when it said it would resist the idea of a separate and permanent eu operations centre responsible for operational planning and conduct of military operations as this would be the clearest example of duplication of nato whose shape headquarters performs precisely this role
baroness ashton when i asked you about this on eleven january you said you agreed with the position i took then
now you seem to have changed your mind
i would be very interested to know what you really think now
