Tri-Service
Fallon: Britain Will Veto Creation Of EU Army
The Defence Secretary has promised Britain will veto any attempts to create an EU army.
Sir Michael Fallon is in Slovakia for an informal meeting of EU defence ministers, where the proposal to form a European force is high on the agenda.
While the European Commission, France and Germany are in favour of the idea, Britain remains firmly opposed. Sir Michael said:
"We're leaving the European Union, but we remain committed to the security of Europe. We're putting more troops into Estonia and Poland next year. We agree Europe needs to step up to the challenges of terrorism and of migration. But we're going to continue to oppose any idea of an EU army, or an EU army headquarters which would simply undermine NATO. NATO must remain the cornerstone of our defence."
At the Warsaw Summit in July, the EU and NATO signed a joint declaration to improve cooperation on defence and security.
Exactly how the EU army would be formed and commanded has yet to be decided.
France and Germany will push ahead with the discussions, despite the UK’s objection.
A UK government spokesperson said:
"Our views on this have been made clear in the past – we work bilaterally with a number of member states for our national security and NATO is the bedrock of our collective security."
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