§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of paragraph 10 of their Memorandum on their approach to European defence issues at the 1996 IGC, which are the "wholly European military structures" that they believe it would be "wasteful to develop" separately; whether they consider it would be "wasteful to develop" structures over which the United States retains a veto; and whether these include surveillance capabilities some of the products of which may not be passed to the United Kingdom or other US allies on request.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe)The Government's primary concern is to avoid the development of separate, purely European command structures which would duplicate those already available within the Alliance and would damage NATO as well as being wasteful. The Government believe that it is better instead to capitalise on existing structures within NATO, which continues to provide the basis of our common security. These arrangements do not include purely national capabilities, including the surveillance capabilities of the United States.