Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-02-05-Speech-3-616-000"
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"en.20140205.65.3-616-000"2
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"Madam President, in a very serious and indeed tragic situation I do not wish to seem frivolous, but would it not be simpler for the Commission just to sign a cheque and be done with it, whenever France wants to help one of its former colonies? Instead, we have gone through this costly and unnecessary charade of creating the CSDP with all its elaborate structures – pale imitations of NATO – and pretence of battlegroups which never have and are never likely to fight any battles. Chad, Guinea, Niger, Djibouti, Mali, all CSDP missions; now we have the Central African Republic.
It is difficult to see what exactly the particular security threat to Europe is from events in this country 5 000 kilometres away, twice as far from Paris as Moscow. There is violence and human need. There may well be a migration problem, but that says something about the security of our borders, rather than a need for military forces, and actually, it is the African Union that has the responsibility for intervening militarily in Africa. That is why the AU is deploying 6 000 troops to the Central African Republic.
I can understand how insertion of a small professional military force to secure an airfield, to facilitate humanitarian aid and the introduction of those African Union troops might be helpful, but that is well within the capacity of French armed forces, and if they need some additional airlift then Britain will give a hand. After all, we have useful bilateral military treaties with France and the Americans will be helpful with overhead surveillance capabilities.
The December European Council put an end to ambitions for a European army and instead emphasised national responsibility in military matters, recognised NATO’s key role and called for the EU to focus on its civil contribution to crisis management. It is time for this Parliament and the Commission to catch up."@en1
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