mr president you will not be surprised if i express concern about the thrust of the reports relating to esdp in particular mr von wogau's report which is full of false assumptions concerning the nature of the european union and the ambition to create a european army under eu control
it sees and i quote this expression synchronised armed forces europe as a step on the way to an integrated european armed force
surely in other words a european army
as we all know esdp produces no military added value
it is a political tool in the advancement of an integrated europe
it should be seen for what it is
for a long time i have argued that the european union could play a useful role in providing civil instruments for crisis management and post-conflict reconstruction
this would actually be helpful
by the way no military officers that i know imagine that conflicts such as afghanistan can be tackled by military means alone
there is nothing new in what is now fashionably called the comprehensive approach
we used to call it hearts and minds
so it is quite wrong a deceit in fact for the eu to try and justify its involvement in military matters by claiming the comprehensive approach somehow rather for itself some sort of eu-unique selling point
for the eu the honest and sensible approach would be to drop the defence ambition from esdp and to concentrate on its civil contribution
then perhaps europe and her allies would be able to focus on their military contributions to nato revitalising the transatlantic alliance for the difficult years ahead without being distracted by the eu's duplicative agenda
the immediate problem is that the eu's ambitions are now beginning to contaminate nato and i am seriously concerned that this will affect the way the sixty anniversary goes
meanwhile back in the uk we have government ministers in a state of denial that any of this is happening
