UK and Europe ‘stronger acting together in face of threats’
CONTINUED close co-operation with the EU on defence and foreign affairs will be “vital” to Britain’s interests after Brexit, the Government has said.
A paper on foreign policy, defence and development offers an “unprecedentedly” deep future partnership, closer than that between the EU and any other non-member. And it says the UK will have to “work close together” with the EU to meet challenges from terrorism, cyberattack, migration, Russian aggression and rogue states like North Korea.
In responding to crises, tackling serious and organised crime and upholding the international order through the implementation of sanctions, the UK and EU will be “stronger acting together”, it says.
The document makes no mention of the prospect of the creation of an EU Army, which was raised repeatedly as a concern by the Leave side in last year’s referendum campaign, and does not rule out UK troops serving under EU command in future missions. In her Article 50 letter triggering the Brexit process in March, the Prime Minister warned that failure to reach a deal would mean that “co-operation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened”, in what was taken by some in Brussels as a threat to future security links.
But Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “This isn’t blackmail, this isn’t a negotiating strategy. What we are doing – and everybody has asked for this – is to set out how we see the new partnership the day after Brexit. We want to fight terrorism together. It’s vital. We are not making threats.”
The new paper – the twelfth to be produced by David Davis’s Department for Exiting the EU – stresses that the UK will remain “unconditionally” committed to maintaining security in Europe, even after leaving the EU.
“In tackling the diverse, changing threats we all face today, it is in the interests of both the EU and UK that we ensure co-operation on European security,” it states.
But Rhondda MP Chris Bryant said: “The Government’s intention to continue to share a deep foreign policy and security relationship with the EU in future is welcome, but it makes a mockery of their threat to leave the EU with no deal at all. Doing so would overnight end our security relationship with Europe, putting our citizens and theirs at risk.”