Did you mean set male 1995-01-01..2005-01-08?
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his clear and in some ways reassuring reply. However, in a way it does not completely answer the doubts and the questions. Does not the new agreement which has been announced involve setting up a completely independent European Union military headquarters which is to be located at Tervuren in the suburbs of Brussels? Did not the letter of intent for the St...
Crispin Blunt: The Secretary of State is in danger of confusing me. At one moment, he is trying to downplay the significance of the development, talking about it as merely wiring diagrams, but he told the Select Committee on Defence that the importance of the St. Malo agreement could not be understated. If I understand it correctly, it represents the most fundamental shift in British defence policy for...
Michael Howard: It is not a red herring. It is the only situation in which the arrangement that the Government have signed up to would have any relevance or make sense. If the United States does not object to any European action, it can all take place within the framework of NATO. That is the point. The United States can say that we should use the NATO processes and assets—that it does not want to send...
Robin Cook: I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his role, but have to say that the initiative goes back long before Cologne, to last autumn, when we met—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman shakes his head, but I was there at St. Malo. The initiative goes back to St. Malo and the Portschach decision of last autumn. As for NATO, I tell Opposition Members that not a single ally in NATO failed to welcome what...
My Government launched an historic initiative at the Franco-British St. Malo Summit. This will make the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy more effective and will revitalise the Atlantic Alliance.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, I have read the St Malo declaration with great care. I am unable to identify any element within any of that Franco-British exercise that might conceivably be thought to fan the flames of anti-Americanism. Will the noble Lord explain what he means a little more clearly?
Michael Howard: The Secretary of State has acknowledged that greater European defence co-operation, which is entirely welcome, could take place within NATO. Does he accept that that was the Government's policy until the 1998 St. Malo agreement? Why was that policy changed?
Iain Duncan Smith: The Minister claims much credit for moves away from Maastricht and other treaties. Why, in 1997, did the Prime Minister describe the proposals to which the Minister signed up at St. Malo and Nice as "ill-judged transplant" operations, which he voted out?
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, the noble Lord mentioned St Malo, which of course long predated the Nice treaty. Does he not accept that what we are debating now in the Nice treaty is a reflection of a policy to which the Americans have been able to sign up?
Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps have been taken to improve the detection of clandestine immigrants coming to the UK via (a) St. Malo, (b) Caen, (c) Le Havre and (d) Cherbourg; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Sydney Chapman: Precisely—that is what the Secretary of State said in the debate last week. As it is now almost five years since the St. Malo declaration, which spawned the European security and defence policy, will the Secretary of State say which European country has increased its defence expenditure; or is it more likely that none has?
Michael Howard: Does the Minister agree that the process of improving European defence co-operation should not take place in a way that might undermine NATO? If he does, why did the St. Malo agreement provide for such co-operation inside and outside the framework of NATO? Can the Minister tell us what steps, if any, have been taken to implement such co-operation outside the framework of NATO?
Geoff Hoon: At St. Malo in December 1998, the United Kingdom and France launched a major initiative aimed at building European security and defence. Since then, we have continued to work closely with our French defence counterparts, culminating in the joint declaration made at our London summit on 25 November. That declaration called on European nations to strengthen their military capabilities and was...
Mike Gapes: The right hon. Gentleman has referred to his commitment to the Maastricht treaty. Does not that treaty talk in terms of a common defence policy that might, in time, lead to a common defence? Therefore, the Government's St. Malo declaration, which was made with the French and supported by the Germans, is entirely consistent with the Maastricht treaty, which he says he supports. Why does he...
Bernard Jenkin: I hope that the right hon. Gentleman is better at law than at history. In fact, I voted against Third Reading of the Maastricht provisions—[Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman asks if I support it, but that is irrelevant—[Interruption.] Maths may not be the Secretary of State's strong point either. The Prime Minister said clearly that the debate has been carrying on ever since St....
Mr George Robertson: ...European Union's common foreign and security policy, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy. That built on agreement at the NATO Washington summit, which itself had originally stemmed from the Anglo-French St. Malo declaration in December last year. Our intention is to strengthen the European capability to contribute to security within the framework of the Atlantic...
Julian Lewis: Is it not the case that the process goes back to before St. Malo? Article B of the Amsterdam treaty specifically says that the European Union shall set itself the following objectives:to assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy. That is what it...
Iain Duncan Smith: The reality of not being involved with the others, as the Prime Minister rightly says, is the fact that he started this whole process at St. Malo years ago. He now has seen and will witness the fact that he has become a spectator while others shape the Euro army to break NATO, so he has no one to blame but himself. It is clear from yesterday that the Germans want a separate budget, that the...
Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he has discussed with his French counterpart the proposal of placing British officials in French cross-channel ports to assist in detecting clandestine immigrants coming to the UK via France; and if he will make a statement; (2) when he last met his French counterpart to discuss improving the situation concerning clandestine...
Bernard Jenkin: When the Prime Minister came back from launching the ESDP at St. Malo four years ago, the excuse given for it was that it was the only way to encourage European nations to contribute to additional defence capability. During those four years, defence spending in the European Union has continued to decline. Only France and Britain have marginally increased their defence spending, France rather...
