European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, as one who believes in European integration and co-operation, I welcome the Lisbon treaty and very much support its aims. For me, narrow national boundaries are increasingly outdated and irrelevant in the global age. Today’s opportunities are global—in trade, tourism, education and sport—and today’s threats are global: terrorism, climate change, epidemics and famine. Thus, bodies such as the EU have to be progressive and outward-looking, and I see that in the Lisbon treaty. Inevitably in a debate such as this with so many speakers, there is considerable duplication of argument, but I have to say that, although I personally bade farewell to the Conservative Party in the mid-1990s, primarily because of its anti-European stance, an encouraging feature of today’s debate has been the number of pro-European Conservative speakers. My calculation is that at the moment it is running at about 50:50, and I very much look forward to the winding-up speech from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, a little later. I intend briefly to focus my remarks on defence issues and, more specifically, on the opportunities for defence co-operation between Britain and France. That was referred to a little earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Astor. Looking back, the decision in 1966 by a de Gaulle-led France to withdraw from NATO’s military structure was a tragedy for that organisation—for cohesive western security, for multinational peacekeeping operations and, of course, for France herself, as she has had to shoulder the cost burden, in every sense, of maintaining sizeable armed forces complete with her own nuclear deterrent. French military deployment overseas was predominantly in Africa, post the colonial legacy, although she participated in the Balkans operations, in the first Gulf War and, of course, is currently engaged in the Lebanon and Afghanistan. Over the years, co-operation on military equipment relative to total military expenditure has been very limited. We have had some successes in aircraft such as the Jaguar, in helicopters such as the Puma, the Gazelle and the Lynx, and some success in the missile field, but little success with joint naval developments. I shall not go through the history of European military agreements and declarations, but the Lisbon treaty extends enhanced co-operation to defence by proposing, as a main innovation, permanent structured co-operation, harmonising military needs in defence equipment and co-operation in training and logistics and improving the capability of EU-led operations. Additionally, the Petersburg missions are extended to humanitarian intervention and peacekeeping, counterterrorism, military assistance and disarmament. The European Defence Agency is introduced into the EU treaty, and its mandate is broadened to encourage greater, more co-ordinated defence capability, particularly in equipment programmes. The Lisbon treaty reaffirms the Amsterdam commitment on the progressive framing of a common Union defence policy. I emphasise, though, that in European defence, primacy lies with NATO. As the House of Lords impact assessment makes clear—my noble friend Lord Roper, referred to this earlier—NATO remains the foundation of the collective defence of member states. This debate takes place relatively soon after Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency; indeed, only days after his Royal Gallery address. He is of a different generation and background from previous French leaders and represents a real opportunity for change from France’s relative isolationism and protectionism. At present France has her own defence review under way, due to be published in the spring. The hard truth is that for second-rank powers like Britain and France, it is simply no longer affordable to sustain comprehensive independent defence capabilities. Of course Europe’s prime defence alliance, via NATO, has to be with the United States, as the world’s current superpower. But as President Sarkozy said recently, and was quoted in the Economist: "““we must not put common European defence in opposition to the Atlantic alliance—we need both, because they are complementary””." Already in France changes are under way. It is to cut its airborne nuclear arsenal by one-third and wants to put its relationship with Africa on to a different footing; too often it has been seen as neo-colonial interference. There is every indication that Sarkozy wants to bring France back into NATO’s integrated military structure. Hopefully, at Bucharest he will announce an increased deployment of French forces in Afghanistan. Given the broadly comparable sizes of UK and French forces and our respective defence budgets, there has to be a great prize in a much closer military relationship. How do the Government intend to respond to President Sarkozy’s overtures? It is in our national interest, and in the interests of the EU, to respond favourably and positively, perhaps with a symbolic gesture. We have a number of US airbases in the UK. Could we not exchange an airbase here for one perhaps in France, or a least offer the French an enclave on our shores? Or would it be possible to fly a small number of Rafale aircraft from our new carriers in due course? Let us acknowledge our commitment to the Lisbon treaty, and all that it represents, in a practical way with tangible military co-operation between Britain and France, and end the years of unfortunate separation.