Don’t allow your ideology to put lives at risk, Prime Minister warns EU leaders
Threats to limit UK access to European criminal database could stifle plans for new treaty on security
THERESA MAY will today tell the European Union that lives will be put at risk if it lets its “deep-seated ideology” act as a barrier to post-brexit security.
In a landmark speech in Munich the Prime Minister will warn of the “damaging real world consequences” if the EU puts “political doctrine” before cooperation on a new security treaty.
Brussels is threatening not to extend the European Arrest Warrant to Britain and to limit access to its crime database, a move viewed with increasing concern by member states that believe cooperation with Britain’s world-class security services is vital.
The Daily Telegraph understands that while Britain is not seeking to have the European Arrest Warrant after Brexit, it wants to achieve the “same results but not necessarily under the same structures”. It came as the heads of security services in Britain, Germany and France yesterday took the extraordinary step of issuing a joint affirmation that continued intelligence cooperation was “indispensable” after Brexit.
Mrs May’s speech this morning comes just before Jean-claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, takes to the stage.
She will say that the UK is “unconditionally committed” to cooperation on security after Brexit and to meeting “the evolving threats we face together” but a new deal, similar to a third party trade arrangement, must be reached.
Mrs May will propose a security treaty that aims to replicate the “full depth and breadth” of existing relations between Britain and the EU.
“We must do whatever is most practical and pragmatic in ensuring our collective security,” she will say.
In a direct appeal to EU nations, she will highlight the benefits of cooperation, including joint terror operations and fast-track extradition of terrorist and criminal suspects.
She will say: “People across Europe are safer because of this cooperation and the unique arrangements we have developed between the UK and EU institutions in recent years. So it is in all our interests to find ways to protect the capabilities which underpin this cooperation when the UK becomes a European country outside the EU but in a new partnership with it.
“To make this happen will require real political will on both sides. If the priority in the negotiations becomes avoiding any kind of new cooperation with a country outside the EU, then this political doctrine and ideology will have damaging real-world consequences for the security of all our people, in the UK and the EU. As leaders, we cannot let that happen.” She will add that the enemies of Britain and the EU would like “nothing more than to see us fractured”.
“So let our message ring out loud and clear. We will keep our people safe, now and in the years to come.”
It came after Alex Younger, the head of MI6, Bruno Kahl, of Germany’s BND and Bernard Emie, of France’s DGSE, issued a joint statement calling for cooperation. The trio were also publicly photographed for the first time.
The European Commission believes Britain should lose automatic access to Europol and passenger name records for flights after Brexit. Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, agreed security cooperation was crucial but warned that Britain will have to back down over red lines such as EU laws after Brexit.
In a press conference with Mrs May in Berlin yesterday, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Germany deplored Brexit but wanted relations to be “as close as possible”. She denied she was “frustrated” by Mrs May’s approach to the Brexit negotiations, saying she was “curious” instead.
The “road to Brexit” passes through Munich today, where Theresa May delivers the latest government speech on life outside the EU. The subject is defence, on which Mrs May remains “unconditionally” committed to European security – backing up Boris Johnson’s insistence earlier this week that leaving the EU does not mean leaving Europe. Many will welcome Number 10’s emphasis upon continuity when it comes to defence; the Europeans ought to breathe a sigh of relief. There’s no denying that this is an issue in which they need us as much, if not more, than we need them.
Indeed, as the clock ticks towards Brexit, Europeans need to start thinking harder about the impact of a bad divorce. Take Germany. Remainers like to portray the UK as chaotic, but the Germans have only just cobbled together a government and their economy will deteriorate fast if Berlin doesn’t help coordinate a trade deal with the UK. Britain is Germany’s third largest market, supporting 1.3 million German jobs. A no-deal scenario would inflict severe harm on the eurozone, which is why the UK can play tough – so long as the threat of walking away is clear and credible.
European businesses will be saying this to their politicians, just as the intelligence chiefs of Britain, France and Germany sent a strong message yesterday by insisting that Brexit won’t divide them. Sensible Europeans look at our mutual strategic interests and know that containing Russia or combating terrorism rely upon cooperation with the UK. Why? Because it has the largest defence budget in Europe, nuclear weapons, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, a vital base in Cyprus and one of the most advanced and trusted security services in the world.
So, Britain has every right to ask for continued data sharing, within the limits of civil liberties concerns, and cooperation with European security agencies – on the understanding that British sovereignty is not compromised. Achieving all this will be as big a test of Mrs May’s bespoke deal as trade. But the bilateral military relationship with France shows what is possible when pride is put aside and mutual reliance is acknowledged. This week, EU diplomats caved into reason and removed the so-called punishment clause from a draft text of the transition agreement. As they listen to Mrs May today, they need to remember that she comes to Munich not as a supplicant but as the leader of an economic and military power.