§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 18 June 1999,Official Report, column 264, concerning the purposes of the proposed European Union Political and Security Committee and associated Institute for Security Studies, if he will list (a) the date, nature, status and attendance of the meeting at Petersberg, (b) the ministerial attendance from the United Kingdom, and reference to the consequential statement in any parliamentary proceeding and (c) the scope and definition of the tasks in executing an integrated and single Union policy for foreign defence, security and military activity in aid of peace keeping and crisis management as defined in the consolidated Treaty on European Union. [88683]
§ Mr. HoonThe meeting at Petersberg was a ministerial meeting of the Western European Union. It took place on 19 June 1992. The United Kingdom was represented by the right hon. Douglas Hurd MP, then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and the right hon. Malcolm Rifkind MP, then Secretary of State for Defence.
The Treaty on European Union provides for the Union to define and implement a common foreign and security policy, covering all aspects of foreign and security policy: and for the common foreign and security policy to include all questions related to the security of the Union, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, and that this shall include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. These are the "Petersberg tasks". The Treaty on European Union further provides for the Union to avail itself of the Western European Union to elaborate and implement actions of the Union which have defence implications.
The "Petersberg tasks" are referred to in the European Council Declaration on Strengthening the Common European Policy on Security and Defence issued at Cologne on 4 June. The Declaration also outlines the objectives of future work within the European Union in order to enable the European Union to undertake these tasks.