§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the treaty base for the development in European Union defence policy in respect of(a) CFSP, (b) ESDI, (c) ESDP and (d) CESDP at (i) St. Malo, (ii) Cologne and (iii) Feira.[138209]
§ Mr. VazThe acronyms ESDI, ESDP and CESDP have all been used to refer to the same process: the European defence initiative launched by the Prime Minister at 767W Portschach in 1998. This initiative has been taken forward through the St. Malo UK-French Summit and the European Councils of Cologne, Helsinki and Feira. The aims of the initiative remain the same: to strengthen the military capabilities of EU member states and European Allies and to enable the Council of the EU to decide to launch and to conduct a military crisis management operation (a Petersberg task) where the alliance as a whole is not engaged. ESDI more correctly refers to the arrangements within NATO for the alliance to support European-led crisis management.
Article 2 and Title V of the Treaty on European Union provide the legal base for the EU's CFSP activity, including military crisis management. The Government are satisfied that the Treaty provides a sufficient legal base for the European defence initiative as defined in successive decisions of the European Council.
§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the inclusion of defence matters in the proposed Treaty of Nice.[138208]
§ Mr. VazThe Government expect that the European Council at Nice will take decisions on the necessary arrangements to enable the Council of the European Union to decide to launch and to conduct a military crisis management operation (a Petersberg task) where the alliance as a whole is not engaged. The Government are satisfied that the existing Treaty provisions provide a sufficient legal base for the proposals which the French Presidency was mandated to develop by the European Council at Feira.