§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent representations he has received from his US counterpart regarding a creation of European Mobility Command to coordinate existing and future European airlift assets; and if he will make a statement.[55570]
§ Mr. HoonNone. We are working closely with allies and with NATO staffs to develop a capabilities improvements programme to build upon NATO's Defence Capabilities Initiative at the Prague Summit in November, and it is likely that improvements in airlift will continue to be a key objective. The existing European Airlift Co-ordination Cell already provides a means of sharing airlift capacity among a number of European countries.