European Union (Amendment) Bill

The noble Lord does not have to strain very hard because, if Europhile noble Lords will permit, I am about to ask Her Majesty’s Government what, if any, is the connection between crisis management and civil contingencies. I ask the Government: what is going on with this EU gendarmerie force? Can the Minister assure us that it will never be used to put down civil contingencies or for crisis management—or however the Petersberg tasks wish to describe it—in this country? Can the Minister give an unequivocal guarantee that the EU gendarmerie force will not be deployed in this country without parliamentary consent? Can he assure us that it will not be used, as is widely feared in Brussels and elsewhere, for instance, in the 2012 Olympic Games?