Leaving the EU

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:44 pm on 26 November 2018.

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Photo of Theresa May Theresa May The Prime Minister, Leader of the Conservative Party 3:44, 26 November 2018

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, and I can give him that reassurance. The development of PESCO does have the potential to improve Europe’s defence capabilities in a way that should be coherent with NATO, but this does not require us to participate or sign us up to participating in the PESCO framework. What it does say is that we may participate in PESCO projects as a third country, but that, of course, would be a decision for us to take—as to whether we wish to apply to do that—and we would not be part of that PESCO framework. As I said in response to my hon. Friend Dr Johnson in the statement last week, we are certainly not signing up to a European army, and we would not sign up to a European army.