British support pledged as Europe’s leaders break ‘taboo’ over shared military resources
EUROPEAN Union countries taking their first steps towards closer military ties after Brexit can count on Britain’s support, Boris Johnson said yesterday.
Foreign ministers from 23 EU nations signed a letter pledging to jointly develop defence capabilities, invest in joint projects, and boost the operational readiness of their armed forces.
Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, described the formal notification of Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco) as a “historic moment in European defence”.
“We’ll be looking at the new European plans for defence and security cooperation,” Mr Johnson said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “We’re there like a flying buttress to support the cathedral and we think there is a lot of promise in the ideas and we will be backing them up.”
Britain, which is not one of the 23 signatories, had dropped its longstanding opposition to the idea after being assured it would not rival Nato by creating a European army.
Paris and Berlin drove forward the plan after Brexit revitalised the traditional German-french “engine” of EU integration. France is understood to have favoured launching Pesco with a smaller core of very committed nations ready to intervene militarily in conflict zones. But Berlin’s preference for less ambitious projects, such as a field hospital shared among a larger number of countries, has won the day.
The UK can take part in some of the 50 projects under discussion if they are of benefit to the entire EU.
Pesco, which is a legal framework for joint investments and commitments, is part of the EU’S Lisbon Treaty but had not been activated until now.
Mrs Mogherini said the years-long “taboo” over common defence policy was broken between the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump, the US president.
“The world is changing,” she said, adding that it allowed countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain to “dismantle the ghosts of the past”.