HC Deb 15 July 2003 vol 409 cc192-3W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many officials in the Department serve on EU committees or working parties. [116094]

Mr. Ingram

The highest military body established in the Council is the EU Military Committee, which is comprised of Chiefs of Defence Staff who meet at least once every six months. At other times, the EUMC and its Working Group are serviced by five Brussels-based United Kingdom military staff working for the UK Military Representative to the EU, who also functions as the UK Military Representative to NATO. Two Ministry of Defence civilian officials are also based in Brussels to support ESDP aspects of the work of the Political and Security Committee and its preparatory groups. From time to time, specialist staff based in the UK also attend working group meetings in Brussels, for example to plan crisis management exercises or for detailed work on force development. These meetings generally do not have a fixed membership, and the numbers attending vary depending on the subjects under discussion, but the total number of UK-based MOD staff involved is about 20.