Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-159"
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"en.20030312.4.3-159"2
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"Mr President, when I spoke this morning in the Iraq debate I drew attention to the self-interested agenda of France, a nation for which I have great affection, but whose foreign policy has some very dangerous elements. One of its key aims is to remove American involvement in European security.
The primary instrument of this policy is ESDP which otherwise sensible European states have been hoodwinked into supporting. They have been given a false prospectus. Ironically I blame Mr Blair just as much for this because it was he who gave the green light to EU defence policy at St Malo in 1998, and a month ago he compounded his error at Le Touquet.
The existence of this separate ESDP has undoubtedly been a factor in weakening the coherence of the NATO alliance, contributing to the recent very damaging disagreements. Now, and without adequate consultation with the United States, the European Union is preparing to take over the NATO mission in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and apparently plans to assume the military responsibilities in Bosnia.
It is predicated on the bizarre idea that if we set up separate EU decision-making structures, distract NATO's Deputy Commander by giving him two sets of political masters to serve, and stick different flashes on the arms of the same troops in the Balkans, NATO's capabilities are somehow reinforced. By the way, for Mr Gollnisch's information, there are only 30 American personnel in the Macedonian force, and none of them are combat troops.
To add to this charade, in order for the European Union to raise its flag on a military operation it has to rely on NATO for its operational planning and for reinforcement or extraction if the relatively soft operation in Macedonia should turn into something more dangerous. But the tragic events of today underline how very combustible the situation in the Balkans remains.
Having created an unnecessary and artificial military divide, the EU and NATO have had to spend two years on negotiating and arrangements to enable the European Union and NATO to find a way of working together. The fact is that the EU's Ruritanian takeover of the NATO operation in FYROM will not contribute any additional military assets. It merely opens the opportunity for political division between European and North American allies at the very time when they should all be sitting around the same table.
How much simpler if France were merely to rejoin the integrated military structure of the alliance and then everyone would be happy. Instead of building divisions into the western alliance, both the North Americans and like-minded Europeans must make the necessary political and material commitments to revitalise NATO as the primary instrument of western security. We need to bring Europe's military contribution back into the NATO fold and start rebuilding the common western strategic culture before it is too late."@en1
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