§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the enhancement of non-military crisis response tools within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, as established in section 56 of the Cologne Presidency Conclusions; to what extent qualified majority voting will apply; what the role will be of (i) national Governments and (ii) the Commission in their deployment; and what is his policy towards the pooling of national civil resources and expertise complementing other CFSP initiatives. [100998]
§ Mr. VazThe Presidency have carried forward the conclusions of the European Council at Cologne on non-military crisis response tools, and will present a report to the European Council at Helsinki suggesting how the Cologne conclusions may be taken further. Decisions on any new arrangements in this area will be taken by consensus. No decisions have yet been taken on the roles of the Commission or of national governments in any new coordinating arrangements. We support better coordination of the various non-military crisis response tools at the disposal of the Community and member states as a way of strengthening the European Union's common foreign and security policy.