§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the changes in Britain's defence requirements resulting from the defence pillar of the Maastricht treaty. [86539]
§ Mr. George RobertsonThe tasks which drive our force structure are more demanding than those currently envisaged under the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. The MOD is committed to the further development of forces that are joint, modern, inter-operable, rapidly deployable and flexible enough to tackle a wide range of militarily demanding, potentially concurrent tasks.