Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-14-Speech-3-083"
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"en.20000614.4.3-083"2
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"Mr President, we are regularly reassured that the measures being put in place under the common European security and defence policy are intended to strengthen NATO. This is somewhat disingenuous. If this was the intention there would be no need to set up the separate structures which largely exclude the Americans and Canadians and marginalise reliable European allies such as Turkey.
Over the past five years NATO has already restructured for the specific purpose of facilitating European action should the alliance as a whole not wish to be engaged. But this apparently is not enough. The real desire is to create something separate from NATO. Of course we want to see the Europeans reforming and enhancing their military capabilities but I fail to see how the continued reductions that we are seeing in European defence budgets, most notably by Germany, demonstrate resolve to make a greater contribution to Western defence efforts.
The amendments we have put forward to the Lalumière resolution are intended to stress the importance of the continued commitment of our North American allies to the security of Europe as a foremost priority, to make it clear that the European Union should only opt to act militarily in agreement with the alliance and when NATO as a whole has chosen not to be engaged, to insist that any rapid reaction force should also be assigned to NATO and in any case should not impact adversely on the capacity of NATO allies to meet their alliance obligations. We want EU decisions relating to the use of military assets, including decisions taken on the basis of a common strategy or when implementing a joint action, to be taken unanimously.
There should not be attempts to create a European armed police force behind the cloak of the common European security and defence policy. The Royal Ulster Constabulary is a fine force with a proud record in fighting terrorism but this is not at all relevant to this particular debate. Our overall concern is that the common European security and defence policy is indeed a further step towards European political integration and that is our fundamental objection."@en1
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