HC Deb 09 January 2002 vol 377 cc829-30W
Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what review of the ESDP will be conducted to establish if it meets the needs of the changed international climate. [25804]

Mr. Hoon

While there are no plans formally to review the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), EU governments will wish to discuss the implications of the changed international climate as their responses to international terrorism are developed. Our work on producing a "new chapter" for the Strategic Defence Review will include an assessment of the role that international organisations, including the EU, might play.

Most of the capabilities being developed under ESDP can also play an important part in a military response to international terrorism.

Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the operations in which he expects the new ESDP to operate. [25802]

Mr. Hoon

The European Council agreed at Helsinki in December 1999 that EU member states should be able by 2003, where NATO as a whole is not engaged, to deploy military forces, capable of conducting the full range crisis management operations known as the Petersberg tasks. These include humanitarian and rescue tasks; peacekeeping tasks; and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peace making. The European Council at Laeken in December last year agreed that the EU is now able to conduct some crisis-management operations within this definition. The EU will be progressively more able to take on increasingly demanding operations as the assets and capabilities available to it continue to develop and improve. Decisions to launch and participate in operations will be taken by national governments, on a case by case basis, in light of the circumstances at the time.

Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions he had at Laeken about the application of qualified majority voting to EU defence policy. [25795]

Mr. Hoon

None. The European Security and Defence Policy falls under Pillar Two of the European Union. Decisions are taken on an intergovernmental basis by unanimous consensus.